Cubs slugger Kris Bryant loses service time dispute with club

Kris Bryant will have to wait longer than he hoped to reap the benefits on unrestricted free agency.

The 28-year old third baseman has learned that arbitrators looking over his dispute with the Chicago Cubs have ruled that the club did not manipulate his service time in order to delay his unrestricted free agency.

Bryant has argued for years that the team purposely kept him in the minors for the first 12 games of the 2015 MLB season despite the fact he performed more than well enough to deserve a shot with the big club.

In his eyes, they did this in order to take advantage of a loophole in the collective bargaining agreement that gives a team an extra year of control on a prospect if they call him up approximately midway through the month of April.

Bryant will now have to wait until the conclusion of the 2021 MLB season to test the free agent market.

The 2016 NL MVP has amassed a .284 batting average, .901 OPS, 138 homers and 403 RBI over a span of 706 regular season games and five seasons with the franchise.