Could Kris Bryant be coming to Philadelphia? In the most recent news from Jon Morosi, the Mariners and Phillies have been linked to all-around fielder Kris Bryant, an extremely close friend of Bryce Harper. 

Kris Bryant is one of those guys that can do it all. Bryant started last season with the Cubs but was then dealt to the San Francisco Giants at the trade deadline, where he played third base, left field, right field, and center field all with San Fran. 

Bryant hit .262/.344/.444 in 51 games with the Giants, tallying 7 HRs, 22 RBIs, and an OPS of .788. He totaled 25 HRs and 73 RBIs on the whole year last year, good for an OPS of .835, with a .481 slugging percentage. He’s a career .278 hitter, with a .880 career OPS, and over 200+ doubles throughout his career.

It seems like Bryant is the obvious answer here for the Phillies. He’s a great ballplayer, he’s longtime friends with Bryce Harper, is a career RBI guy, hitting 70+ RBIs in 5 of his 7 seasons, and can just about play anywhere if you need him to. The trick to signing Bryant is what’s going to happen defensively when you still need a true centerfielder at heart.

Ideally, you don’t want to have to put Bryant in CF. The goal would be to throw Bryant in left and have him linger at third base if needed, and potentially move Castellanos to centerfield if signed, or sign a true centerfielder.

This is where the hold-out for Bryant could come into play. It was reported yesterday that Kris Bryant is not expected to sign until after the new CBA. Nobody knows how long it’s going to take to come to an agreement, so if this is true, Bryant could really be on the market for a while. But I’d have to assume that after seeing all these big names get this absurd amount of money if the right deal comes along for Bryant, he’s going to take it. 

We know Bryant and Harper have a connection. They’ve been friends since they’ve come into the league, they’ve spent holidays together in the past, and most recently, as most people remember, Bryce Harper even hit with a “Kris Bryant” bat, one batter before he was driven in on a walk-off by Andrew McCutchen. The star connection is there, it’s just the matter of Dave Dombrowski getting the deal done for the Phillies.

There’s a lot of names flying around right now for the Phillies. Nick Castellanos and Chris Taylor were rumored to the Phillies this morning, and now star Kris Bryant. We’re in for a wild few days folks. It’s the best time of the year. 

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