CHICAGO — If Kris Bryant played like this a year ago, he wouldn’t be in Chicago today.
If Bryant wasn’t playing like an MVP candidate right now, he and several of his talented friends would be on the trade block and dumped off to the highest bidder by the trade deadline.
Well, Bryant has messed up all of the Chicago Cubs’ plans of rebuilding, reloading, reconstructing, refurbishing, or whatever teams call it these days to appease their fanbases.
Bryant, almost singlehandedly, has extinguished the Cubs’ plans for a fire sale, with shortstop Javy Baez, closer Craig Kimbrel, catcher Willson Contreras and first baseman Anthony Rizzo all now looking likely to stay in Chicago the rest of the summer.
It’s a 180-degree change of plans from the winter.
The Cubs, who dumped ace Yu Darvish in December in a seven-player trade with the San Diego Padres to cut payroll, let teams know during the winter that virtually every high-priced player was available. If they didn’t want them during the winter, or spring training, they’d be available in the summer.
These days, the Cubs are living out the movie, “Major League.’’ They’re simply playing too well to be torn down.
“I think we’re pretty damn good,’’ Cubs manager David Ross said. “I think these guys believe that. I think they know that.’’
The Cubs, 32-25, even in a stretch of playing 25 of 28 games against teams…
