The Kris Bryant Problem And How To Fix It

On March 30th, the Chicago Cubs assigned wunderkind slugger Kris Bryant to its minor league affiliate in Iowa, rather than bringing him north from spring training for MLB's opening day. Bryant – the consensus number one prospect in professional baseball – completely annihilated Cactus League pitching this spring, with a league-leading 9 homers in 40 at-bats and a slash line of .425/.477/1.175. Bryant's assignment to Iowa was met with strong reaction from the Major League Baseball Players Association which issued the following statements via Twitter:

The implication from the players association and others is that the Cubs had an ulterior motive for sending Bryant to the minor leagues, i.e. due to a longstanding wrinkle in the collective bargaining agreement, delaying Bryant's promotion to the major leagues for the Cubs' first 8 games of the season – indeed, the Cubs called up Bryant to the majors on April 17^th (and he has continued crushing the ball to the