Craig Kimbrel is back on the move, and the latest stop comes with the Kansas City Royals.
The veteran reliever has signed a one-year deal, and once he gets into a game for Kansas City, it will be the 12th team on his big league résumé. Only four pitchers in MLB history have played for more, and two of them are familiar names to Cubs fans: Edwin Jackson and Rich Hill, who each appeared for 14 teams.
For the Cubs, Kimbrel’s career arc is a reminder of how sharply things changed after they brought him in during the 2019 season to lock down the back end of the bullpen. Instead, the first two years went sideways fast, with Kimbrel posting an ERA above 5 in both 2019 and 2020. He did rebound in 2021, but by then he was traded to the Chicago White Sox.
Since leaving Chicago, he’s become the definition of a wandering bullpen arm, with stops in Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Atlanta, Houston, New York, and Tampa Bay. At different points, he’s looked ineffective, and at others he’s flashed just enough to suggest there might still be something left before the wheels come off again.
That uncertainty has fueled the sense that retirement could be next, but Kimbrel clearly isn’t ready for that ending.
His most recent run with the Rays showed both sides of the story. He finished with a 3.86 ERA in 19 appearances, but his fastball was sitting in the low-90s after being in the upper-90s during his Cubs years. He also walked more than 12% of the hitters he faced, a sign that the margin for error has narrowed.
There was at least a scenario where the Cubs could have kept him in the conversation if they had not made the deadline moves they did. The idea wouldn’t have been crazy, especially considering Chicago had previously taken chances on Liam Hendriks and Aaron Bummer.
But that’s not where the Cubs are now. Their bullpen got help at the deadline, and more pitching reinforcements are expected back in the coming weeks. In other words, Chicago may be headed toward having too much pitching - and that’s the kind of problem every team would happily take.
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