The Dodgers announced their roster for the NLDS today, with right-hander Craig Kimbrel not making the cut. Here’s who did make it…
Right-Handed Pitchers
- Yency Almonte
- Tony Gonsolin
- Brusdar Graterol
- Tommy Kahnle
- Chris Martin
- Dustin May
- Evan Phillips
- Blake Treinen
Left-Handed Pitchers
Catchers
Infielders
Outfielders
The Dodgers are in the postseason for a tenth consecutive season, winning the NL West in each of those seasons except last year. However, 2022 was the most impressive of the bunch as the club went 111-51, the highest win total in franchise history. They will now face off against division rivals, squaring up against the Padres in a best-of-five series.
Kimbrel’s omission from the roster is the latest step in what has been an extremely mercurial portion of his career. From 2010 to 2018, Kimbrel was one of the most dominant relievers in the sport, pitching to a 1.91 ERA while striking out 41.6% of batters faced and racking up 333 saves.
Since then, however, it’s been a rollercoaster for the righty. He was issued a qualifying offer by the Red Sox after the 2018 season, which he declined. He lingered on the open market all the way until June, eventually signing with the Cubs once the draft had already taken place and he was no longer attached to draft pick forfeiture. After missing nearly half the season, Kimbrel struggled that year by putting up a 6.53 ERA, then struggled again the pandemic-shortened 2020 campaign with a 5.28 ERA.
In the first half of 2021, he seemingly got the train back on the tracks, registering a 0.49 ERA over 36 2/3 innings, getting traded from the Cubs to the White Sox. However, the pendulum swung the other way after the trade, with Kimbrel posting a 5.09 ERA after moving across town. Nonetheless, they Sox picked up his $16MM option before trading him to the Dodgers for AJ Pollock. Kimbrel recorded 22 saves for Los Angeles but was eventually moved off the closer role in September and now seems to have dropped far enough on the bullpen chart to be excluded from their playoff plans, unless an injury opens a spot for him down the line. He has a 3.75 ERA on the season, with a 27.7% strikeout rate that’s above league average but well below any of his previous seasons.
The exclusion of Kimbrel might actually say more about the Dodger bullpen than it does about him. Overall, the club’s relievers posted a 2.87 ERA this year, second only to the Astros, though L.A.’s bullpen logged 85 2/3 more innings than Houston’s. Along with quality starting pitching, an elite offense and strong defense, it’s not hard to see how this was the best team in baseball this year.
Cuz he blows
Hasn’t been good since the ‘September massicer’ of the Cubs in 2019 or 2020?
Good.
Shows you how good the bullpen is.
Never would’ve thought Chris Martin would outlast Kimbrel, but kudos to the other Chris Martin for reinventing himself.
Shows you how great the bullpen is.
I doubt there’s another one in baseball that would keep Kimbrel off.
I personally wouldve kept him over Kahnle.
Kahnle has looked really good since he came back.
Yeah I mean you can’t really argue any decision. That’s an absolutely loaded pen. I would guess he’s the first to go if he has a rough outing but pretty great problem to have
The Mets choked so hard it’s hysterical
Mets did fall hard, they will outbid the Yankees, Dodgers and Giants for Judge. 10 years 400M
And still not win a WS. The Pirates have won more NL East crowns than the Mets…. They haven’t been in the east since ’94
If you watched him all year it was not bad luck. He always fell behind in the count and couldn’t locate any breaking ball. He was unable to adjust at any point in the season and didn’t earn the postseason spot.
Actually, take a look at baseball savant analysis. His percent of first pitch strike was better in 2022 versus career. The most meaningful drop-off is whiff % at 29.2% versus 37.6% career. In zone pitch contact rate at 79.6% versus 73.3% career. Chase percentage down to 25.7% versus 29.4% career. Chase contact % up to 48.6% from 41.1% career. Both four-seamer and curveball whiff %/putaway % down significantly. His velocity and movement didn’t drop off much from 2021 but definitely down. But those drop-offs do not explain the big drop-off in stats from 2021 to 2022.
baseballsavant.mlb.com/savant-player/craig-kimbrel…
That’s a lot of mumbo jumbo numbo for Craig Krumbo
He lead baseball in blown saves this year btw.
That was Taylor Rogers, not Kimbrel btw
That was yomama btw
Dodgers didn’t even need judge so where the lost here ?
Gosh! I hope so! I hope the Mets give him so much money that they have to defer a big chunk of it and pay him a lump sum every year. And on that day each year… I hope they call it Judgment Day!
Watch the Phillies! They’ll spend money
Off-topic much?
What do the Mets have to do with Craig Kimbrel being off the Dodgers postseason roster? Why are some of you obsessed with the Mets? Baffling.
good. he can lean over with his arm hanging while he watches the game on tv.
More time to hang out with Aroldis Chapman.
Seems harsh even as a joke, given Kimbrel is at least a good dude who tried, he just sucked this year. He took ownership of sucking, too. He doesn’t deserve to hang out with Chapman! 😉
Kimbrel is an interesting case. His stuff still looks good but I believe velocity down a bit and command down. His K/BB down a bit but still decent, not dominant from overall career perspective. Seems like he had a bit of bad luck too. Soft contact base hits combined with more walks led to constant traffic on base paths. Part of that is due to K rate being down. When you allow contact versus whiffs you’re going to allow more base runners even if it’s not hard contact. For whatever reason he could not put away batters this season as well. K rate down to 10.8 per 9 innings versus career 14.4 per 9.
It is a joke, but it’s also a reminder that athletes at the top — in this case two of the most dominant relievers in the game at their peak — can fall quickly.
Is he hosting a division series tattoo watch party?
He can go home early and beat the traffic… wait, it’s LA, you can’t beat the traffic.
I hated how people treated Jansen in his LA tenure. LA fans deserved what they got from kimbrel
111 wins?
This is GREAT news. That eliminates any chance of Dave acting on a temptation to use him in a game. This was something that definitely concerned me going into today.
Roberts actually said weeks ago that Kimbrel wouldn’t have a role in the post-season. It appears as if the author of this writeup was the last to know.
You do understand there is a difference between not having a role and not making the roster..right? Not having a role could easily mean going to be used as a set up – in slop time- as a closer- maybe spot starter. He won’t have a set role. Perhaps don’t be so eager to criticize.
What he actually said was that closing for the rest of the season would be situational.
Yeah. That’d be pretty wild if he came out and said Kimbrel wouldn’t have a role weeks ago. Not knowing if injuries or his performance would tick up…..
If one of these relievers gets lit up—you’ll probably see him this round or the next though.
Very astute.
Haha it’s sad how true this comment is
Now let’s hope Bickford isn’t on it, either.
No way Bickford was going to make it. I would have put Kimbrel, Ferguson and Price in over Bickford.
Do you see Bickford above on the playoff roster? No, then he didn’t make it. 😉
I’m more surprised that Ferguson didn’t, as an extra lefty, but admittedly his control had become very wobbly lately.
Comment was made before roster was posted. Headline just said Kimbrel not in roster.
Agreed on Ferguson. The command has been more lacking of late. I think it also hurts him that he’s a lefty. Dodgers have three lefty starters, then you throw in Heaney and Vesia from the pen and they’re lefty heavy. Kahnle over Ferguson. But I wonder if they had Kimbrel over Ferguson if Treinen was not available.
Roger that, and agreed. And I think a shorter series can have a different look, and depending on opponent, over 7 game series so some guys may get a reconsideration IF they make the next round. (Heck you could see Victor Gonzalez considered as another pen lefty if they did.)
There goes the series.
May and Treinen bumped Kimbrel and Ferguson off the roster. Hope both May and Treinen can stay healthy. Looks like Vargas over Alberto for last bench spot.
Yeah but apparently it’s all about Craig Kimbrel. Four paragraphs worth! And nothing about the surprise of Treinen being included when he has thrown only a few innings all year and hasn’t thrown a competitive pitch in over a month. You’d think that would be the story here, or at least mentioned.
Yeah, Treinen will be a big question mark. Best Dodger reliever but man he hasn’t really pitched all season and no idea how healthy he is. I guess they can roll the dice and if he’s not ready they’ll replace him on roster, probably with guess who.
The Dodgers have been playing intra-squad games over the last week so presumably he got a long look in those and they liked what they were seeing.
For Dodgers fans, Christmas just came early.
not to worry. Roberts will overuse his starters as relievers and lose to the braves in the next round.
Brilliant analysis with no relation to how they’ve managed this season or the fact that they have 4 starters only and none of them will pitch in relief (Heaney and May will be those long reliever or spot closer guys if needed)
Citizen
Too early to think about next round matchups, Atlanta ball club already getting its Phil in Divisional Series.
He wasn’t really affective in tough situation’s.
Kimbrel didn’t make you angry?
Donny,
Really the affective versus effective is not as bad as incorrect apostrophe in his last word. Just sayin’.
Yet the effects can be mitigated by a situation’s difficulty.
Changing of the guard among relievers. No Kimbrel, no Chapman. $32M worth of contracts can’t catch even the back of the bullpen. Wow. It’s not easy to stay at or near the top.
Hey, they’re both 34 and been around for a dozen years. The old arms can’t take all that abuse forever.
And just like that, the biggest weakness is gone
a relief pitcher, especially a closer, has to be able to locate his pitches from the first pitch on. Kimbrel could not do that this season. always behind in the count, always missing his target, not good….see ya
I agree that his command was not as good this season but he’s never been a command guy. Very up and down. He walked 4.2 per 9 innings versus career 3.7 walks per 9. The couple of seasons where he was filthy dominant and best closer in baseball he was able to get the BB/9 to sub 3. But that hasn’t been his thing. He’s always somewhat struggled with command.
The biggest difference is the K per 9. He had a career low 10.8/9 inning K rate, which compares to career average of 14.4 Ks per 9. In his elite season back in 2012, he had a K rate of 16.7 per 9 innings. Previous season lows were 13.1 and 13.2 per 9 innings. Then you look at his BABIP this season and it was 0.313 versus career 0.269. So he’s missing bats less often and allowing more contact. Maybe some of that is harder contact but any contact over missing bats will cause your numbers to inflate. At times he’s not missing his pitches by much. High fastball is a little above the strike zone, breaking pitch bit off the plate, especially with two strikes. Sometimes there are bigger misses. But those are put away pitches that are not happening, which extends the at bat and more likely to draw walks and hits. Even if the pitch is a off the plate Kimbrel would normally get batters to swing and miss on those. I remember watching him earlier in the season and his pitches weren’t missing by much especially with two strikes and the batters weren’t swinging. For Kimbrel it’s the fall off in K rate that did him in this season.
I personally believe Kimbrel was using spider tack on the cubs which is what made his curve ball so devastating in 2021.
He was able to “get by” without it longer because it took teams longer to realize he lost his curve once the crack down took place.
I could be wrong but I don’t see how changing roles can take a guy who was absolutely dominate one half of the season and be an utter bust the second half
Shows how spoiled Dodgers fans are when a guy with a 3.75 ERA is considered a bust.
ERA for relievers means very little.
It’s not like he came in with runners on. He started his innings. How many of his losses were in extra innings with an automatic runner on? The Dodgers won 111 games and he was the closer. He couldn’t have been that bad.
Los Karens don’t need Kimbrel anyways.
Rocker
Not as much as the Atlanta ball club might, based upon today. They are getting their Phil..
He had that incredible first half last season with the Cubs, but has been mediocre to bad for the other parts of the last four years. His stuff still seems good at times, so there’s a chance he can still be effective, but the 2011-2014 version of Kimbrel doesn’t look he’ll be making a sustained reappearance. He did have a great 2017 in a bounce back, but the overall trend line since 2015 has been down. Another reminder of why Rivera was so unique.
Whoa !
Where is Hanser?!?!?!??? Very sad…the dugout will not be the same without him.
Agreed. He should have been on the roster before CT3.
Is it a rule that he’s not allowed in the dugout?
If you are merely on the 40 man roster I don’t know. IL you can be there. Good question. If he IS allowed he better be there. He is our backup 3B coach…Sometimes primary..
The human bobblehead. If he’s on the taxi squad, maybe.
Forgot about the “taxi squad” good point. Haha Yeah he looks and reminds me of Juan Uribe, Puig, and Muncy.
No Kenley Jansen on the roster this year so i wonder who’s arm Roberts will ride to death this postseason
It won’t matter. The Dodgers are gonna be eliminated in this round anyway.
It doesn’t matter Dodgers will continue to choke
Who are the Tigers playing in the playof……… Nevermind, it’s too easy.
Show em who’s boss Juan!
Austin Meadows says hi.
Dodgers finally woke up and canned Kimbrel.
No Kimbrel, but also no David Price!
How the once mighty have fallen (or aged)
Not much need for Price in a short series.
Not much need for Price in a baseball game
Kimbrel and Chapman are the basemen for a game of pickle.
Kimbrel, is understandable. But no David Price and Caleb Ferguson too? Damn
Heaney and Anderson in the playoffs. Yikes.
uvmfiji, Anderson “yikes?”Are you on hard drugs?
Now do Belli
Sadly, Kimbrel past his prime would’ve still helped the Marlins bullpen as their Closer. That’s how bad our bullpen is.
Come on Kimbrel, if the Marlins have no other options next year, come on over. The beaches are better than LA’s
And here you’ll have job security because it is unlikely that you’ll stink worse than any of our “Closers”..
No Trevor Bauer
No David Price
No Craig Kimbrel
Chris Taylor on the bench
Joey Gallo on the bench
$108 million not being used
Um, what?
Trayce Thompson got exposed a bit in one inning defensively in LF. A better athlete gets that HR ball instead of falling down. Bellinger for sure would have robbed that HR. Again, a better athlete tracks down Kim’s line drive. Thompson was not close and not sure why he even dove for the ball. Luckily Bellinger backed him up. He got late jumps all night. On an earlier pop up to shallow left he got there so late. Trea Turner looked over as if to say where are you? The shallow fly ball by Nola, Thompson makes a decent accurate throw to the plate but still a weak throw given how shallow the ball was hit. A better arm maybe gets the runner at the plate. I’d rather have Gallo or Taylor at LF defensively.
If Thompson doesn’t get back on a ball, I highly doubt Taylor does
CT doesn’t even make a jump most likely
Ball hung pretty well so plenty of time to get back. Thompson has a couple of inches on Taylor but he flat out just missed it. Scraped the wall as if he didn’t know it was there and mistimed it. Gallo would have had a better chance on that one and a much better arm than Thompson on the sacrifice play at the plate. The disappointment in Thompson was more a body of work for that entire inning. If he defends better I don’t think the Padres score 3 runs.
I only watched it live, but what I remember he jumped early. To me, that means he either mistimed the jump, or he thought he had no more time to get back and made his best effort. I see it as the latter, but we really aren’t saying much differently