Cubs 3B Kris Bryant has endorsement deals with adidas, Rawlings and Red Bull despite having played just four MLB games, but he "understands the obligations he has with the companies he's signed contracts with," according to Mark Gonzalez of the CHICAGO TRIBUNE. Bryant said, "You sign these contracts, you use these people’s equipment. They want to broadcast you. They’re proud of it, and I’m proud I’m with a brand that works with me like that." Bryant last Tuesday filmed an ad for Red Bull on the same day his "scheduled game for Triple-A Iowa was rained out." He said filming the spot was "kind of bang-bang and happened very quick." He added, "I think it turned out funny. It’s something I enjoyed." However, Bryant said he is "focused on what I have to do here" and that endorsement shoots are "just a thing on the side." Meanwhile, Gonzales notes during Spring Training and before his MLB debut, Bryant "signed many autographs." Bryant said, "I like to give people that respect. They’re watching you play, and that’s a small thing I can do for them" (CHICAGO TRIBUNE, 4/21). In Chicago, Gordon Wittenmyer compares Bryant to Gabe Kapler, who in the late '90s was the focus of a "shoe-company ad campaign" before he played an MLB game, and notes Kapler prior to Bryant may have been the last player to have "ridden his own, sponsor-created wave of hype and expectations into a big-league career." That actually could make Bryant the "perfect combination of temperament, savvy businessman, self-aware celebrity and, maybe, even ballplayer to overcome the bust-riddled path of Cub phenoms before him and beat the fishbowl of stupidity that has consumed so many." Cubs manager Joe Maddon noted that Rays 3B Evan Longoria is the only player he had coached that "comes close to a reasonable comparison to Bryant and the expectations that arrived in the big leagues with him." However, not even Longoria "had the entourage of sponsors and personal media blitz" (CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, 4/21).
