The feud between Chicago Cubs President Theo Epstein and high powered sports agent Scott Boras is heating up. The dispute between the two major American sports figures began a few weeks ago when Boras criticized the Cubs for not planning on taking minor league Phenom Kris Bryant with them back to Chicago after spring training, instead opting to send Bryant to AAA minor league ball.
For his part Epstein has been as diplomatic as possible here. But one must read between the lines of his comments.
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The Cubs President told David Kaplan of Comcast Sportsnet:
“I have a lot of respect for Scott and he by and large does a great job for his clients. The only part about it that bothers me is that he certainly could have picked up the phone before going to the national media about this. He never once called me and asked me if Kris would make the team or anything about his situation. So just from a personal level and professional respect, that would have been something that I would have done if I was in his shoes.”
So it is not what Boras said, just that he failed to talk to Epstein about it first. And what difference, exactly, would that have made?
Would Epstein then have been OK with Boras talking to the press about Bryant? Probably not.
And in a direct shot across Boras’ bow, Epstein reminded the Cubs fan base that Boras is a sports agent who handles players in all sports, not an expert on baseball. As an expert on baseball he said that it is crucial not to bring a player up from the minor leagues too soon.
“A major league debut is a sense of time, and if it doesn’t go quite the right way and if you don’t put them in the right position to succeed, you can get in the way of their whole integration into the major leagues and it’s something we take seriously, ” Epstein said.
Singing Bryant’s praises Epstein said, “The person who is handling this with the most professionalism and maturity is Kris Bryant. I couldn’t be more proud of how he is handling a very difficult situation. He is getting asked about it every day. He doesn’t get to just go focus on playing the game; he is asked about this from all corners and he is handling himself in a way that makes the Cubs proud.”
