The Orioles announced Wednesday that they’ve designated veteran right-hander Craig Kimbrel for assignment. Baltimore has recalled righty Bryan Baker from Triple-A Norfolk in his place.
Kimbrel, 36, was signed to a one-year, $13MM deal over the winter after All-Star closer Felix Bautista required Tommy John surgery last October. The club banked on Kimbrel’s track record and excellent strikeout rate helping to solidify the ninth inning, even after Kimbrel had a shaky finish to his 2023 stint with the Phillies — including three innings of NLCS work wherein he yielded four runs.
At least early in the year, Kimbrel was generally effective, even while walking a highwire. His walk rate was up, but so was his strikeout rate, and in spite of four blown saves in the season’s first half he pitched to a pristine 2.10 earned run average. As things have gone off the rails since the All-Star break, he’s ceded the ninth inning to deadline pickup and former Phillies teammate Seranthony Dominguez.
Dating back to July 14, Kimbrel has been decimated for 25 runs (23 of them earned) in 18 innings of work. He’s yielded 23 hits (five of them homers), walked 17 batters and plunked a hitter during that disastrous run. The tipping point was a six-run meltdown in last night’s loss to the Giants. Kimbrel faced eight batters, allowed three hits (two singles and a double), walked two hitters and allowed a runner to advance on a wild pitch in what was his worst and likely last outing of the 2024 season.
Kimbrel will be placed on waivers, and he’ll surely clear. He’d be ineligible for the postseason roster with another club, and a claiming team would be on the hook for the prorated remainder of this year’s $12MM salary and the $1MM buyout on next year’s club option. No team is going to make that move. He’ll clear waivers and be released, at which point the club option will be moot (though the O’s will still owe him that $1MM buyout). He could sign with any other club for the final few days of the season, but it’s possible he’ll simply wait until the offseason to seek out his next opportunity.
Kimbrel’s second half has been so gruesome that it’s overshadowed his excellent first half, but a run of two bad months shouldn’t torch any and all interest in him over the winter. He’s not the dominant high-leverage force he once was, but he still fanned 31.5% of his opponents this season and turned in a strong 11.8% swinging-strike rate. His fastball is down from an average of 95.8 mph in 2023 to 93.9 mph in 2024, per Statcast. It doesn’t seem likely that he’ll be handed a closing job this offseason, but assuming he wants to continue pitching, Kimbrel should find interest on lower-priced big league deals — perhaps with incentives based on games finished in the event that he ascends back to the closer’s role in his next destination.
Kimbrel currently ranks fifth all-time with 440 saves and is only six behind another still-active closer, Kenley Jansen, for the fourth spot on that list. Either pitcher could still catch Lee Smith for No. 3 all-time (478), but climbing north of 600 alongside Mariano Rivera and Trevor Hoffman isn’t going to happen. In 809 2/3 career innings, Kimbrel has a 2.59 ERA, 56 wins, 26 holds and 1265 strikeouts (38.8%) to go along with those 440 saves.
Seemed like leaving him in last night was cruel punishment.
They wore the dude out early in the season. Shoulda been splitting the saves all year. Plus he was a shaky signing in the first place. Typical O move
He could be a nice fill-in reliever next year. He’s just no longer a closer, obviously.
as long as he didn’t run out of gas again like he did this year. there was no where to hide him, even in low leverage spots, he was scary.
I’m afraid his storied career may be over here. cardiologists everywhere will have to find another way to bring in business.
He was washed up since 2021. Since then four teams have signed him thinking he was the same closer as he was before then. I wonder if another team will be suckered into signing him.
Not that I want to defend his playoff performance, but he was an all star last year. Not necessarily washed up then.
Storied career?? He’s not even top 10 closers
He’s statistically top 5, so…
One of the best relievers I’ve ever seen and I’ve been watching baseball since 1957. Try to ignore the uneducated comments
@tangerine
What, you can’t tell a story about anyone outside of the Top 10?
I get the animosity towards Kimbrel but you have to acknowledge he did it at a high level for a long time.
Given the rate at which pitchers are breaking, he may be the last closer with as many saves you’ll see in your lifetime. Not saying there aren’t better pitchers that will come but like the complete game record, it’s a sign of the changing game that the number of specialized closers with a long career of saves will be decreasing drastically each year that progresses.
@Curly
Sometimes people’s hatred clouds their ability to think rationally.
For his age 22- 30 seasons he had a 1.91 ERA and 868 SO over 532.2 IP, the amount of disrespect Kimbrel gets is insane.
By several metrics he’s top 6-8 over the last 30 years
How did they wear him out?
He never pitched more than 1 inning and never pitched more than 2 games in a row.
O’s are very judicious in the use of their bullpen.
He ain’t what he used to be, but he still can’t hold runners or enter in the middle of an inning. I think he’s done.
For $13 million I would gladly endure that
Legitimately…wow!
Run – He really was THAT bad, totally handed a game to the Red Sox last week.
No, I get it. I really do, but it’s just crazy how Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde he is in a save situation and in garbage time. Sure, he was having issues closing games, too.
hell of a run, cheers,
At least you got Nicky hot pants Maddrigal for your efforts. A Boulevard of broken dreams everywhere else he landed
Long overdue. Every bad Kimbrel outing was a reminder of just how devastating the Felix injury was. I’m very interested in seeing how this off-season goes.
Better late than never. I think most of us knew that if they kept him into October he’d single handedly torpedo their playoff run. Kudos to the team for surviving Kimbrel as long as they did.
He’s not the one torpedoing the playoff run, but, yeah, this was long overdue.
That has to be it for his career right?
There will definitley be some teams willing to take a low-risk chance on him in the hopes he can look more like his first half 2024 self to try and filp him at the deadline. Angels, Marlins, and White Sox would have next to nothing to lose to see if he can figure something out. Maybe even the Rays take a shot and try to see if they can throw him through their pitching development machine.
Even ATL who loves their past more than anything, esp when it means that they’d get a player (that’d sell tickets) for next to nothing. They love guys with closing experience, though Kimbrel has never really worked out well pitching in relief. Is it enough for ATL to give him a try, save some cash while selling tickets and bring him back in ’25 for a last hurrah? I mean, they did for Luke Jackson — and I’m not even sure Cooperstown would let him in if he bought a ticket for a tour.
I think he’ll end up with the Angels or Rays. Angels seem to love to throw resources at big name brands, even if it’s not the best value. I could see the Rays because of their ability to take pitchers and make them good.
He could end up somewhere, but he should put adding to his career save total out of his mind. He’ll be a 6th/7th inning guy if anything.
Yea his career is over. Maybe he can get into broadcasting or coaching.
Meanwhile, my “career” as a security guard is “flourishing”.
Kimbrel was awful for the Dodgers. Phillies saw that and gave him 10 million. He blew the NLCS for Philly. Then Orioles saw that and gave him raise. Wonder who will get duped this offseason
Cashman.
OMG I can hear Boone defending him already.
“I know he gave up 8 runs and got no outs but I thought he threw the ball very well.”
He was also a hot mess for the White Sox. I don’t blame BAL for signing him, but they knew enough about how he staggers through innings most of the time to know they needed a plan B which they didn’t get until the deadline.
He arguably triggered the White Sox downfall (checks notes), only 3 falls ago when riding the high of the Field of Dreams game they were poised to make a run and stalled against the Astros. Well that, and sleepy drunk Tony.
I was thinking the same thing. Thank god Madrigal and Codi Heuer did not amount to anything or the trade from the Cubs to the White Sox would have been even worse. He was terrible for the White Sox and everyone kept making up excuses because the closer duties were given to Liam Hendriks.. Then, to make matters worse, we picked up his option and then had to trade for a washed up A.J. Pollock just to get him out of Chicago. This and many decisions have led the White Sox to where they are.
Horrible move by the worst GM in baseball. You don’t just DA an experienced veteran reliever this late in the season. Kimbrel is a world series champion. Most of their relief staff have barely any post season experience. Pathetic
Logically, I would agree with you. Given how bad Kimbrel has been, it literally comes down to anyone else would be an improvement over Kimbrel. He was given far more opportunities after so many bad outings in Baltimore than he would have been given anywhere else.
You haven’t been watching. Kimbrel was Baaaad…
Worst GM in baseball…..from a Mets fan no less. I’m dying laughing over here.
You should be banned for being a knucklehead. Kimbrel should have been dfa in spring training. The Orioles are a very young team, who in spite of losing basically their entire rotation are still right in the chase. You are dismissed.
You can’t go into the postseason putting Kimbrel in high leverage situations. This was a good move. However, Seranthony Dominguez isn’t much improvement; still stinky, just less of a stench than Kimbrel.
Did the white Sox gm get traded to O’s lol ?
I see why you were banned.
we should listen to your rant because your team knows their stuff with worst GMs.
What an idiot
Ok, this is officially a bit. Bravo!
You overplayed it, though. No one can be this consistently, unintentionally inept.
What’s funny is how the so called worst GM in baseball turned around both Houston and Baltimore from multiple 100 loss seasons into contenders, while the Mets have gone nowhere. I mean, at a certain point, build it correctly instead of just throwing money around.
But the NY sports fan will never tolerate a small step backward to make a real contender, so here you go.
C’mon AA! You missed Heyward, now’s your chance to redeem yourself
A’s like to waste money on relievers and habe to appease owners by spending revenue sharing money. Sign kimbrel in no pressure for Sacramento A’s and convert Mason miller back to starting pitcher
Hey Orioles!! If the Phillies don’t want ‘em, there’s probably a very good reason
Kimbrel, Dominguez, Soto (Gregory). Elias is taking out Dombrowski’s trash!
Comet;
Sadly, the O’s current closer is a guy the Phillies tried to make a closer but he couldn’t handle it.
I love Baker’s attitude. First noticed it 2 years ago when he had that exchange of pleasantries with the Blue Jay’s dugout. Dude.
According to POBO Elias, Orioles can’t find their “mojo”. They need a pick me up. I’m thoroughly convinced that Bryan has been brought up for that sole purpose. IE. stick it in someone’s ear and at the earliest opportune time. Green lighted not from Coach Hyde but from the OPACY warehouse.
Here’s hoping Elias has learned the very expensive lesson that you don’t sign one declining reliever and proclaim your bullpen work is done….
And also hoping he learns from the Rogers fiasco.
Well…..rogers had a nice outing in AAA last night if that helps…
2nd time he’s done this. Late 2022 he gets the news that Tate’s injury is serious. Goes out and gets Givens. Thought it was a panic move at signing.
When did Elias proclaim his work was done? What date was that press conference? Let’s see after signing Kimbrel traded for Burnes. Claimed Matt Bowman and Burch Smith off waivers-not great but serviceable relievers. Traded for Zack Eflin at the deadline who has 6 out of 7 quality starts- and was 1 out shy for 7 for 7. Traded for Dominguez at the deadline who except for a disturbing tendency to give up home runs has replaced Kimbrel as closer. Soto has been okay after 2 awful early outings. They signed Albert Suarez as a minor league free agent last September and he has been a savior for the rotation-not counting last night. And the Rodgers “fiasco”? He’s made 4 starts. Let’s give him a few more opportunities before writing him off. And by the way Norby is 4 for his last 26 so maybe he isn’t HOF material just yet. But the main point is Elias didn’t step back and be satisfied. He made moves- some worked and others didn’t. Even Branch Rickey passed on Yogi Berra and signed Joe Garigiola instead
geotheo;
I get that. His track record is well above average.
But what’s gone undiscussed (is that a word?) is that during the off-season the O’s reassigned their pitching coach (that had had success with multiple pitchers in 2022-23) and brought in Drew French from the Braves as pitching coach.
I don’t know enough about the inner workings of major league coaching staffs regarding pitchers, but I long ago tired of Mr. French walking out to the pitchers mound 3-4 times a game to talk with a pitcher that was struggling some. They have 2 good ML catchers that are supposed to partner with the pitchers. Most importantly, I’ve seldom seem improvement from the pitcher French went out to talk to.
I watch at least parts of a lot of MLB games. There is no other pitching coach I can think of that walks out to the mound so often to talk to the pitchers. Are O’s pitchers still using training wheels? Whose doing is this? Hyde? The FO? If they did that to me I’d figure they had no faith in me or my catcher to work through downturns….which happen all the time. So what?
…and Rutschman hasn’t looked the same behind the plate this year.
Since he came up he was on top of the pitching and worked with the pitchers. Now he looks lost. He just walks out to the mound and let’s French do all the talking.
Gonna take years to clean up the mess done by the FO in the past year.
If you notice French usually goes to the mound one batter before Hyde makes a change. Mainly to give the guy in the bullpen more time to warm up. As far as Holt I suspect the plan all along was to have him move up to organizational pitching coordinator. That way he could implement his pitching philosophy to the entire organization and travel less
What did he DO? Approximately nothing. He got Kimbrel, and that was that. Even though he knew he’d need at least another competent reliever in case Kimbrel was bad.
Of course he didn’t publicly proclaim he was done, that’s called hyperbole, and I thought most folks could get that.
FOmeOLS;
What did he do? What, MLB is the same as Rotisserie League baseball? You make a trade for a guy and plug him in.
–
Elias and his staff make decisions. Because no one person in MLB is a dictator that makes all decisions behind closed doors and then notifies his subordinates with a text what he/she has done.
Teams that get good do it by making players they have under contract better. All the teams that are winning this year have done that. What exactly did the Brewers DO this offseason to fix their pitching staff? Their staff currently has the 4th best ERA IN ALL OF MLB, and their team is in 1st place in the NLC by 10.5 games. Worse for your theory – they traded their best veteran pitcher to the Orioles for a young infielder and a young relief pitcher that in time may become a starter.
Clearly with the shake up in the pitchers coaching staff the O’s were banking on getting Kimbrel and other bullpeners better. In fact, Perez, Akin and Baumann ARE better in 2024. Some are worse and are no longer with the team. Perhaps in the 2 weeks you’ve been following MLB you missed the fact that a teams bullpen is the most volatile component of a ML team from year-to-year. French (pitching coach) had success in 2023 with the Braves as bullpen coach. He wasn’t as successful with the O’s. Unlike you, Mr. Elias can’t see into the future.
Every GD team in MLB is looking for bullpen help 365 days a year. Some guys that were good suddenly fail. Some come out of nowhere and have a positive impact. Cleveland has the best bullpen in MLB – can you you name 3 of their pitchers…..that came out of nowhere?
Most decisions in any business FAIL. That includes successful businesses. It’s a fact. It’s the decisions that work out that carry businesses. Other than you and your entitled demand as a consumer that one person in charge does everything and must not let anything bad happen, the rest of us have to live in reality.
Mr. Elias and his staff made very bad decisions going into the 2024 season. They’ll have to learn from them. That’s what life is about in the adult world.
I think you misunderstood, I wasn’t defending Elias, I was saying that he didn’t get significant help and he knew he wasn’t getting significant help and he made no realistic attempt to get significant help and if he did make an attempt to get significant help then it failed so badly that it’s the same thing Because he didn’t and he knew he needed some
Kjerstad SO% 32.9
Mayo SO% 56.8
Cowser SO% 34.3
Holliday SO% 37.2
Yikes! Ghastly!
@Ignorant Son-of-a-b
Big time swingers and failures. So much for the so-called famed O’s farm system. Another reason not to believe all the media hype around the farm system of teams. O’s look cooked next year.
lol. What’s the average age of these kids? 22? Those samples are way too small to make a call like that.
@dm867
Mostly garbage-time players overhyped by media and sports agents.
Old York continues to embarrASS himself
Yes, caveat is the very small sample size. And kudos to Westburg, his SO% is a very reasonable 22% or so. Not all the kids are striking out.
Kimbrel was the Orioles counterweight to the Yankees Clay “BLOWN SAVE” Holmes.
Lol I honestly was expecting to see a Clay Holmes reference in the replies.
36 years old?! That screams St. Louis cardinals this season all over it
Yet I got flamed on here for saying that the Orioles still needed a closer. It’s been a heck of a career Craig!
Should’ve trade prospects for mason miller instead opted for Rogers and rotation help
I’m pretty sure Miller didn’t get traded to any one. There might be a reason. The asking price was astronomically high, or they never planned on trading him. What closer that changed hands would you have wanted?
Mason knows on the injured list during the trade deadline
Stupid comment. They got pen help and needed starters badly.
I’m thinking A’s have turned that proverbial corner. Miller stays and as a SP not closer.
Man, the O’s are limping to the finish line, and moving on from Craig (understandably) is just another reason to believe that Baltimore isn’t going to be around long in October.
I wonder if they tried to trade for Estevez. Or if the Angels could’ve gotten a better deal from the O’s than Phillies. But they rarely trade within the AL let alone the division. Half the team has come from the NL East or Central.
Ross Atkins is feverishly pressing the “Claim” button on his MLB keyboard.
I always wondered how that works lol.
The Rays can fix him.
Well for what it’s worth a bit of gratitude.. during 2018 playoffs he helped doctors get my blood pressure/ anxiety / insomnia all in check… so for that thanks..
Man it’s just sad to see. A once dominant force looking like this. Some teams may be willing to take a flier on him next season, but Kimbrel may come to the same decision Joey Votto did where he realizes it isn’t prudent to keep playing and embarrassing himself. He did have a decent first half, but overall he’s a shell of his former self.
Age/time wins every time
He deserves a little more respect than some are giving him. He was one of the top relievers in MLB during the first half of the season. And there is no doubt he is one of greatest of all time. Love him or hate him you should respectfully cheer and give credit to his overall body of work.
About time.
Getting DFA-ed by a team gunning for a #1 seed in the playoffs is really going to rub some (shouldn’t-be-voting) writers the wrong way when his HOF candidacy comes up
A team that’s sub-.500 since ASB
SewaldSwansonSwoon;
Actually, that’s going back to a bit before teh All-Star game.
I know, but I didn’t want to go look and get depressed again at what I find. ASB is at least an easy, indisputable mark that no one could disprove.
As a Nats fan, I’ve always enjoyed whenever Kimbrel has suffered, dating back to his dominant days with the Braves. But, man, that’s rough, DFA’d two weeks before the end of the season. No need to kick him while he’s down. Odds are he’ll end up as a Nat now anyway.
He was atrocious though
The run he had in his first four seasons as the closer are legendary.
273 games, 185 saves, led the league in saves 4 straight years, 1.51 ERA, 1.52 FIP, .880 WHIP, and 14.6 K/9.
What a run.
Make a run for the border
It is not very often a future HOF gets a DFA.
Like Shake and Bake . And My A’s helped !
“Hasta la vista, baby.” ~ T-100
Gwynny: I know you guys tried, but you greatly disappointed me last night.
Can you ever forgive us and accept today’s victory as amends?
You know it, my man! Score! (I hadn’t looked at the scoreboard yet today, my games starting in about 20 mins).
4 nil, Cease dealt for 8.1
End of the road is getting closer, could be this is Kimbrel’s exit…
How does Kimbrel get a ML contract next year except for, maybe, a low guarantee and incentives? The end comes for every player. Maybe it’s not yet come for Kimbrel, but..
Thank you Giants for giving Kimbrel his worst career outing and ending discussions of him being a Hall of Famer.
Stupid comment
Since arms that haven’t fallen off yet are always in short supply, some team with a short memory will probably take a flyer on him next year.
He’s got a 4.18 FIP and a good K rate. Lost his command with the high BB rates. As long as he’s healthy, he’ll get a MLB deal next season. Probably a one-year plus vesting option.
He’s been up and down in recent years. Wouldn’t be surprising if 2025 is an up one.
Signing Kimbrel never made sense for the Orioles.
They 101 games in 2023 and needed a closer.
… not Kimbrel.
Every Phillies fan on earth saw this coming.
Every White Sox fan saw this coming.
@AM21
Because Philadelphia overused him, and used him badly. He appeared in 71 games, the second most of his career outside when he was 23 with Atlanta, and threw the second most innings of his career outside his age 23 Atlanta season, apart from Boston 2017, when he also threw 69 innings when he was 29 . Here’s a clue, Kimbrel is no longer 23 or 29, he was 35, and he still converted 23 of 28, plus in the post season, Philadelphia sent a 35 year old to work consecutive days because they had no depth in their pen. A closer working on consecutive days with high leverage situations at his age is most of the time doomed to fail, and he did.
He’s been failing the second half of seasons for a while, this wasn’t unique to Philly. Here’s a clue: he has been a shadow of himself since his first couple of seasons in Boston.
couldn’t hold on to him until at least after the Yankee series.
Ross Atkins calling, and calling, and calling….
For $1-mil plus incentives they should. Have you seen this bullpen?
Fascinating.
My O’s lost a big time shut down closer in Bautista before the 2024 season, they brought Kimbrel in and for the first 3 months of a season it looked like a savvy move. Unfortunately he fell apart the rest of the way but you cant take away the wins he secured or the ones he surrendered. He just completely lost it between the first half and the second half of the season. At least you’re not trying to rely on him during the post season. As long as you’re in the playoffs you still have a chance, but my O’s really need to solve their offensive problems more than anything, its been a big struggle the past month and a half if not longer.
Imagine saying that a guy with 440 saves out of 499 which is 88.2% for his career is ‘no good’, or some of the other uninformed comments and hate that he’s getting here, it’s ridiculous.
Mariano Rivera was 652/732 which is 89.1% HOF
Dennis Eckersley was 390/461 which is 84.6% HOF
Trevor Hoffman was 601/677 which is 88.8% HOF
Billy Wagner was 422/491 which is 85.9%
Lee Smith was 478/581 which is 82.3% HOF
Francisco Rodriguez was 437/513 which is 85.2%
Bruce Sutter was 300/401 which is 74.8% HOF
Some so called ‘baseball fans’ have no clues about baseball, they should stick to attempting to knit their next woolen tea cosy.
Sutter threw multiple innings, so his percentage is going to be lower. I’d imagine Gossage also suffers.
@CrimeDog
It is pretty ridiculous.
Recency bias, ignorance, troll-dom or general stupidity. One or multiple choices from that list. Because he struggled in the 2nd half of this year, it doesn’t negate the body of work and esp the longevity at that high level.
Even if you add in his late season struggles in the last few years for other teams.
“Not top 10 closer” comment is not defensible. I ought to ignore blatantly absurd comments, but the general smugness, 20/20 hindsight and unkindness on the comments section really irritates me.
We all love our teams but these are human beings and some of the comments people make about them is nuts. I’m probably as guilty as anyone when I mutter something while watching the Orioles and their recent anemic offense or whatever but in the larger scope of things, I recognize that personal attacks on the players are unfair and not right. I’m trying to guard myself against that kind of vitriol.
BTW,”but they make millions” is no excuse.
Kimbrel will be compared to Kenley Jansen. By the time they are both retired, Kenley may look like the best reliever of his time. Kimbrel compares more to Lee Smith, Wagner, and K-Rod. Come back in fifteen years and I’ll bet Kimbrel isn’t in yet.
Jansen is a sure-fire hall of famer. Might have suffered a bit from lack of national exposure in LA.
Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you, the next Pittsburgh pirate.
Why? 3.53 SIERA. He was pitching very well regarding what he can control.
Tell me you haven’t watched any Orioles games in the last 3 months without saying you haven’t seen any games the last 3 months.
@AHH-Rox
Tell me you don’t understand advanced metrics in the past 500 years without saying you don’t understand advanced metrics in the past 500 years.
Advanced metrics aren’t everything, though.
@Eatdust666
Right, but when we’re evaluating the pitcher on what he can do as a pitcher, irrelevant of the defense and the rest of the players on the team, he had a SIERA of 3.53. SIERA has been considered the best predictor of performance overall. So, why would a guy with a 3.53 SIERA get booted off a team? I guess the O’s don’t want pitching?
Greatest closer in the history of baseball.
…is Mariano Rivera.
Had to happen but you still hate to see it.
Someone like MIA or LAA will probably give him a look next year on a modest MLB deal, maybe for $2 or $3 million, and hope he performs well enough to flip him at the deadline, but as an O’s fan who watched his collapse this year up close, it’s hard not to think that he’s DONE done at this point.
Great closer over his career. Probably top 5 or 6. It’s just time. Let it be already O’s fans. Dominguez isn’t the answer either. I like the O’s and hope they can finish strong. Looking at it, I think they should have made a stronger effort for Snell….maybe even overpaying since they have so many prospects.
DFAing Kimbrel makes the O’s championship contenders.