Craig Kimbrel, Come On Down! YOU Are A Baltimore Oriole!
Things finally started to move yesterday at the Winter Meetings and one of those moves was the Orioles getting a bullpen piece. 35-year-old Craig Kimbrel is on his way to Baltimore to do his best and try and fill the role left with Felix Bautista's absence. Is he the sure fire closer he was a few years ago? Absolutely not. Is he as bad as all Phillies fans think? Nope. He's....fine. He's perfectly fine. He isn't close to Felix but no one is. The numbers still look good though. 1.8 bWAR, 23 saves, 3.26 ERA, 94 Ks in 69 innings, a 1.043 WHIP in 71 appearances. Not as bad as Philadelphia tries to tell you.
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He still strikes out a ton of guys, a ton. Doesn't walk many, he is a fly ball pitcher but you'd think that Camden Yards would help with that. Last year when he wasn't in mop up duty or pitching in a blowout, he had 23 saves and a 2.89 ERA. That is good! People are jaded from the 2 bad appearances he has vs Arizona and have let that pollute their thoughts of him. Let me say it again, he isn't prime Kimbrel but he has enough in the take to get it done for the O's. They have a good back end of the bullpen with Yennier Cano and Kimbrel, and you can even throw in a guy like DL Hall who we saw shine out of the pen last year. They have options. It was said Kimbrel is "expected" to close, but that can always change. My guess is the birds go closer by committee and just play match ups and hot hands. I also like the move from a veteran point of view. This guy has done it all and seen it all, who better for young bullpen guys to learn from than this future Hall Of Famer. He isn't Eric Gagne, he isn't prime Zack Britton, he isn't Trevor Hoffman, but he's a fine 1-year stop gap guy for this club.
And guess what. Craig Kimberl will blow a save this year, he'll blow more than 1 save. It happens, it's baseball. No one is perfect, but he isn't a bad baseball player right now. It's a short term team, 1 year, $12 million and a team option for the 2nd year at $13 million and he immediately makes this bullpen better than they were 2 days ago. He's better than plenty of guys that the Orioles had in their pen last year as well. Just because he had 2 tough outings in October doesn't mean he's washed like people on twitter say. They had to make a move to bolster their pen and they did that. Now this can't be the only move to the bullpen. The Orioles should 150% still go get another arm or two, you can't have enough pen guys. Top 10 in K% by a reliever in 2023, he can still get it done.
Now again, if we get to Opening Day and this is the biggest move the Orioles made, I'll be pissed and things will not be good in Birdland. But I hope and pray they make other moves and bolster the payroll because their window to win is now. Right now. Go get more arms and a bat, make Kimbrel the 3rd or 4th biggest signing of the offseason for you.