The Chicago Cubs have reassigned top prospect Kris Bryant, who leads the majors with nine spring training home runs, to their minor league camp.
The Cubs made the move Monday, less than a week before they open their season against the St. Louis Cardinals.
"We entered camp with the presumptive move being to send him to Triple-A," Cubs president Theo Epstein said. "It's always the presumptive [move] for us move with young players that haven't played in the big leagues yet."
Chicago also demoted highly regarded prospects Javier Baez, who had been competing for the starting second base job, and Addison Russell to the minors.
Bryant, 23, led the minor leagues with 43 homers last season and was having an outstanding spring with the Cubs, batting .425 (17-for-40) with 15 RBIs in 14 games.
"He demonstrated to everybody that he's really close, not just to the big leagues, but to playing an important role on the team," Epstein said.
But if Bryant spends 12 days in the minors to start the 2015 season, the Cubs will gain an extra year until he is eligible for free agency.
"We're more likely to get him [on the major-league roster] sooner than later," Epstein said. "We are going to afford him the same luxury we afford to most young players which is go off and get into the rhythm of the season, and we'll get to you quickly."
Cubs manager Joe Maddon said he is looking forward to working with Bryant, who he called a "brilliant talent."
"When you look at the entire picture of development you're still looking at a couple areas to improve a little bit," Maddon said Monday. "I'm not going to sit here and tell you that you wouldn't like to have him in your lineup. He's also 23. I'm looking forward to working with this guy for the next 15 years.
"He's a brilliant talent. I'm not going to sit here and say things that are disingenuous. This guy is good. He's going to be really good."
The matter of whether Bryant would open the season on the major league roster stirred debate at the behest of Bryant's agent, Scott Boras, who was adamant that the Cubs owed it to fans to have Bryant start the season in the big leagues.
Epstein, however, told ESPN last week that he prefers young players to make their debut in-season, as he's done in the past with Dustin Pedroia and Jacoby Ellsbury during his tenure with the Boston Red Sox.
Boras questioned the Cubs' "integrity" earlier this month when discussing the possibility of Bryant starting the year in the minors. His comments prompted baseball commissioner Rob Manfred to chide Boras on Friday.
"I don't think the Cubs' decision with respect to what's going to happen with Kris Bryant is really any of Mr. Boras' business," Manfred said.
The 22-year-old Baez struggled mightily this spring, batting just .173 with one homer, one RBI and 20 strikeouts in 52 at-bats. The slugging infielder had a whopping 95 strikeouts in 213 at-bats with the Cubs last season.
Russell, acquired last season in the trade that sent Jeff Samardzija to the Athletics, batted .324 with a homer and six RBIs this spring.
Bryant and the 21-year-old Russell were rated as baseball's top- and fourth-ranked prospects overall, respectively, earlier this year by ESPN Insider Keith Law.
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