Blue Jays Acquire Nick Kingham
The Blue Jays have acquired right-hander Nick Kingham from the Pirates for cash considerations, as announced by both teams. Ryan Tepera has been shifted to the 60-day injured list to create room on Toronto’s roster.
Kingham was designated for assignment this week, effectively ending almost a full decade in Pittsburgh’s organization for the righty. Kingham was a fourth-round pick in the 2010 draft and has long been considered one of the more promising arms both in the Bucs’ farm system and in baseball as a whole, appearing on top-100 prospect lists prior to both the 2014 and 2015 seasons. Tommy John surgery in 2015 delayed his progress, though he still amassed a 3.46 ERA, 3.17 K/BB rate, and 7.7 K/9 over 766 1/3 career innings in the minors, starting 142 of his 147 games.
As a big-leaguer, Kingham flirted with history when he carried a perfect game into the seventh inning during his MLB debut back on April 29, 2018. Overall, however, Kingham has struggled to find consistency in the Show, posting a 6.67 ERA that has been boosted by 25 homers allowed over 110 2/3 innings, though he has a higher strikeout rate (8.2 K/9) in the majors than in the minors, albeit over a much smaller sample size.
Though the Pirates are far from deep in starting pitching options, it seems like they were simply ready to move on from the 27-year-old Kingham, who now gets a chance on a Blue Jays team that is in even more desperate need of rotation help. The Jays rank at or near the bottom of the league in most starting pitching categories, and will need even more starters on hand to fill the void if/when Marcus Stroman and Aaron Sanchez are both moved before the July 31st trade deadline. Kingham could get a shot in the rotation immediately (which could mean the end of struggling veteran Edwin Jackson‘s time in Toronto) or he could throw out of the bullpen as a long man until a trade or until the Jays decide a change needs to be made.
Padres Option Chris Paddack
In a move that’ll come as a surprise to many, the Padres announced that they have optioned right-hander Chris Paddack to Class-A Lake Elsinore. USA Today’s Bob Nightengale first reported the move (via Twitter), noting that the Friars are looking for ways to manage Paddack’s workload after he threw just 90 innings in 2018 — his first season back from Tommy John surgery.
Dennis Lin of The Athletic tweets that Paddack isn’t expected to be in the minors long. Assuming he’s back up in fewer than 20 days, the move won’t impact Paddack’s timeline to free agency, Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union Tribune points out (Twitter links). Acee adds that Paddack is going down merely to rest and is expected to return in 10 days or so (the minimum required length of an optional assignment, barring recall in the event of an injury).
While workload surely was surely the driving force in the decision, Paddack has also fallen into somewhat of a slump after his brilliant start to his rookie campaign. In the past month, the 23-year-old has pitched to a 5.76 ERA with 30 hits and eight home runs allowed in 25 innings. He’s still sporting a stellar 26-to-3 K/BB ratio in that time, but the long ball has been problematic of late.
Paddack’s 65 2/3 innings are already within striking distance of last year’s total, so the brief trip to the minors will give him some downtime without forcing the Padres to carry a pitcher they’re trying to deploy minimally for a week or two. Right-hander Robert Stock is up from Triple-A to take his spot on the active roster and will give the Padres a fresh arm in the bullpen. He’s pitched to a 2.79 ERA in 19 1/3 Triple-A innings and collected 27 strikeouts in that time — albeit against 15 walks and three hit batters.
Blue Jays Place Ken Giles On Injured List
4:50pm: Giles doesn’t expect to miss more than the 10-day minimum, tweets Shi Davidi of Sportsnet.
3:24pm: Blue Jays closer Ken Giles is headed to the 10-day injured list due to inflammation in his right elbow, per a team announcement. The Jays also announced that right-hander Clay Buchholz was moved to the 60-day IL to clear a 40-man roster spot for righty Jordan Romano, whose previously reported promotion from Triple-A is now official.
It’s a blow to the Blue Jays on the field but also an unwelcome development given that Giles is among the team’s best trade chips as the July 31 trade deadline looms. There’s no indication that Giles will require an especially lengthy absence at this point, but any sort of recent elbow issue will be cause for some degree of concern when teams are discussing Giles as a trade candidate next month.
The 28-year-old Giles has been nearly automatic in 2019, pitching 25 innings with a 1.08 ERA and a gaudy 42-to-7 K/BB ratio. He’s earning $6.3MM in 2019 and is all the more appealing to contending teams due to the fact that he’s controlled through the 2020 season.
In Giles’ absence, the Jays seem likely to turn to Joe Biagini in save opportunities. He’s worked the eighth inning on 17 occasions in 2019 and is tied for the team lead in holds (seven). Daniel Hudson would be another option should the club prefer a more veteran alternative, but he’s averaging nearly five walks per nine innings pitched.
Alex Cobb To Undergo Season-Ending Hip Surgery
Orioles right-hander Alex Cobb will miss the remainder of the 2019 season due to season-ending hip surgery, general manager Mike Elias announced to reporters Tuesday (Twitter links via Roch Kubatko of MASNsports.com). The operation will fix an impingement in his right hip, and Kubatko adds that Cobb might also undergo a procedure on his knee.
Cobb, 31, is in the second season of a four-year, $57MM contract that has blown up in Baltimore’s face to this point. The longtime Rays right-hander got out to a poor start in 2018 but at least gave the club some cause for optimism when he posted a 2.59 ERA and 42-to-18 K/BB ratio in 66 innings down the stretch. That solid stretch of games was only enough to push his overall ERA to 4.90, though, and he was limited to 12 1/3 innings due to a lumbar strain in 2019 prior to today’s announcement.
In all, Cobb has given the Orioles 164 2/3 innings of 5.34 ERA ball over the course of 31 starts since signing his deal. A decent showing in the first half of the year might’ve been enough to allow the Orioles to shed a portion of his contract’s remainder, but that now looks all but impossible. The O’s will have to hope that Cobb can return to health in 2020, if for no other reason than to help soak up innings for a club that is quite thin in terms up upper-level pitching depth in the minors.
Cobb is still set to be paid $14MM in 2020 and $15MM in 2021, but a portion of those salaries are deferred and will be paid out in annual increments from 2023-32.
Rays Prospect Brent Honeywell Fractures Bone In Elbow During Rehab Process
MONDAY: Honeywell could be ready to pick up a ball again in January of 2020, Topkin tweets. His replacement ulnar collateral ligament is just fine, which represents a silver lining to the unfortunate situation.
SATURDAY: Top Rays prospect Brent Honeywell, on the mend from an April 2018 Tommy John Surgery, fractured a bone in his right elbow during a scheduled bullpen in Port Charlotte, Florida, and is out for the season, reports Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times. A surgery is scheduled for Monday.
Honeywell, a consensus top-30 prospect in every major outlet even after the Tommy John, had already experienced a major setback in his rehabilitation process this April when he was temporarily shelved with forearm soreness, an injury often precursor to major elbow damage. The 24-year-old’s vaunted screwball, perhaps the only pure version of the pitch used with regularity among professional hurlers today, was felt in some circles to be the tear’s root, though Honeywell only features it sporadically and had never been hurt prior to the surgery.
It’s obviously a brutal hit for both Honeywell and the Rays, though the latter can at least can hang its hat on an impressive young group of big-league arms and emerging talents below. Topkin, in a follow-up tweet, writes that Honeywell’s 2020 outlook is at yet unclear, though the club should know more after the Monday surgery is complete.
In 416 minor-league innings before last season, Honeywell had set down 458 batters on strikes while walking just 93 en route to a 2.88 ERA. He had little issue with the longball until he arrived for 2017 at Triple-A Durham, but his grounder rates remained robust. He was near-unanimously projected as a #2 starter in the majors should his stuff have returned to form. The future outlook now, of course, is far cloudier.
David Ortiz Hospitalized, In Stable Condition After Gunshot Wound
12:20pm: Rivera and Rojas report (via Twitter) that the Red Sox have sent a plane to the Dominican Republic in order to transport Ortiz back to Boston, where he’ll receive further treatment. Ortiz has been deemed stable enough by his doctors to travel.
June 10, 6:15am: Ortiz incurred some damage to his liver and had to have his gall bladder as well as parts of his colon removed as a result of the shooting, per Rivera and Rojas. Rivera adds that Ortiz is currently in intensive care but still considered to be in stable condition.
June 9, 11:43pm: In excellent news, Ortiz is expected to make a “total recovery” from the attack, Leo Ortiz tells Soldevila (Twitter link, with translation from Pete Abraham of the Boston Globe).
11:22pm: Ortiz is out of surgery and doing well, his brother tells Soldevila (via Twitter, with translation from James Wagner of the New York Times).
10:29pm: The operating doctor also says that Ortiz is stable, though he will still require another hour of surgery (from Soldevila with translation from Speier).
10:10pm: Ortiz is in stable condition, the local police chief tells Soldevila (Twitter link).
9:24pm: Former Red Sox slugger David Ortiz is in hospital in Santo Domingo Este after receiving a gunshot wound, according to multiple reports out of the Dominican Republic, including TV station CDN 37 (Twitter link). Ortiz was attacked while at a club, and the suspect is reportedly now in police custody. Leo Ortiz, David’s father, told ESPN.com’s Enrique Rojas that he was called about the situation, “but they did not tell me how he is or exactly where he was transferred.”
Original reports stated Ortiz was shot in the leg, but the latest update from Dominican reporter Dionisio Soldevila (original tweet, and translation from the Boston Globe’s Alex Speier) indicates that Ortiz was shot through his lower back on the left side, with the bullet coming out the other side of his body through the abdomen. Ortiz is currently in surgery, Soldevila told ESPN.com’s Marly Rivera (Twitter link).
Details are still scarce about the incident, though needless to say, it is a horrific situation for Ortiz, his family, friends, and millions of fans. Prayers and messages of support for Ortiz are already pouring in from all over the baseball world for one of the sport’s most beloved figures, and we at MLB Trade Rumors likewise sent our best wishes to the Ortiz family.
Royals Agree To Terms With First-Rounder Bobby Witt Jr.
The Royals have agreed to a full slot deal with their first-round selection Bobby Witt Jr., per MLB Network’s Jon Heyman. The 18-year-old, who was chosen second overall, will receive a $7,789,900 bonus to sign with the Royals.
Witt, often touted as the second-best player in his class and the top high-school prospect in the class, is regarded as a “potential five-tool shortstop,” per MLB.com. Hailing from Colleyville Heritage High School in Texas, Witt’s father played 16 years in the big leagues, and the junior Witt is said to possess a strong arm and defensive instincts that should allow him to stick at shortstop and provide potentially plus defense. His offensive profile is fueled by impressive power that could make him a 20-20 player in the future, but there are some concerns about his ability to hit for average stemming from the swing-and-miss in his game.
With his signing, Witt slides into a crop of impressive young infielders for the rebuilding Royals, joining Adalberto Mondesi, Nicky Lopez, and Hunter Dozier as some of the promising youngsters for Kansas City. While general manager Dayton Moore likely views Mondesi, who has turned heads with his play since the second half of last season, as a building block and shortstop of the future, that is not in consideration when drafting a talent like Witt, who plays the same position. Witt strengthens a mediocre Royals farm system that looks to be on the rise following the addition of Witt and the strength of last year’s draft class, headlined by Brady Singer.
Astros Promote Yordan Alvarez
TODAY: Alvarez is in today’s lineup as a DH, hitting fifth. In corresponding moves, southpaw Reymin Guduan has been optioned to Triple-A and Lance McCullers Jr. was shifted to the 60-day IL, as per multiple reporters.
SATURDAY: The Astros are set to promote top infield/outfield prospect Yordan Alvarez from Triple-A Round Rock in advance of Sunday’s game, Jake Kaplan of The Athletic reports. Alvarez isn’t on the Astros’ 40-man roster, which is full, so they’ll need to make a corresponding move to create a spot for him.
Alvarez, a soon-to-be 22-year-old from Cuba, joined the Astros in an August 2016 trade with the Dodgers for reliever Josh Fields. Since then, Alvarez has developed into one of baseball’s premier prospects. The lefty-swinging Alvarez has slashed a ridiculous .343/.443/.742 (175 wRC+) with a minor league-leading 23 home runs and 49 walks (including 11 intentional passes) against 50 strikeouts in 253 plate appearances at the Triple-A level this season.
MLB.com is among the outlets with a high opinion of Alvarez, ranking him as the game’s 23rd-best prospect while lauding his offensive upside. At the same time, MLB.com notes the 6-foot-5, 225-pound Alvarez won’t provide much (if any) defensive value. Alvarez has lined up at first base and left field in the minors, and he’s likely to divide his time between LF and designated hitter in his first taste of the majors, per Kaplan. The Astros are in excellent shape in left with Michael Brantley, though they haven’t gotten much production from primary DH Tyler White.
Despite White’s paltry output, the Astros’ offense entered Saturday with the majors’ sixth-most runs and its second-highest wRC+. They also boast the American League’s top record (44-22) and a nine-game lead in their division. However, injuries to Jose Altuve, George Springer, Carlos Correa and Aledmys Diaz have taken a bite out of the Astros’ lineup of late, so Alvarez could help in that regard.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Braves Sign Dallas Keuchel
FRIDAY, 9:07pm: The Braves have announced the agreement. To make room for Keuchel on their 40-man roster, they transferred reliever Darren O’Day to the 60-day injured list. Atlanta plans to activate Keuchel after he makes two starts in the minors, Mark Bowman of MLB.com tweets.
6:32pm: Keuchel has passed a physical, per Gabe Burns of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution (via Twitter). The signing is expected to be announced tonight.
THURSDAY, 9:02pm: Keuchel’s contract is indeed for one year, reports Yahoo’s Tim Brown (Twitter link). He’ll be paid $13MM between now and season’s end, which is a bit more than the $11.16MM he’d have made on a prorated deal worth the same amount as the $17.9MM qualifying offer. (ESPN’s Jeff Passan adds that his base salary is technically around $20MM, and the $13MM represents the prorated version of that sum.) Keuchel will take a physical tomorrow, and he’ll jump right into the fray with Triple-A Gwinnett when he makes a start there on Saturday.
8:18pm: The Braves have agreed to terms with left-hander Dallas Keuchel, reports David O’Brien of The Athletic (Twitter link). It’s “likely” a one-year deal, O’Brien adds. Keuchel is represented by the Boras Corporation.
As was the case with Craig Kimbrel, Keuchel will see his prolonged free-agent saga come to a close just days after the draft-pick compensation that has hung over his head was lifted. The terms of the contract will surely be only a fraction of what the former Cy Young winner had eyed when rejecting a $17.9MM qualifying offer from the Astros back in November, but but a short-term arrangement will allow Keuchel the opportunity to once again test free agency — this time without the burden of a qualifying offer and likely with some lower expectations; Keuchel and Boras reportedly sought a contract of five years and more than $100MM in the early stages of free agency.
Keuchel, 31, has seen his results tail off since his brilliant Cy Young campaign back in 2015, but he’s still a quality arm who should provide some much-needed stability to a Braves rotation that hasn’t functioned according to plan (or anywhere close) in 2019. Top starter Mike Foltynewicz missed several weeks to open the season and has struggled considerably in his return from the injured list, while Sean Newcomb has been moved to the bullpen and Kevin Gausman is lugging around a 6.15 ERA. Julio Teheran has posted solid bottom-line results, but fielding-independent pitching metrics forecast him as a regression candidate.
Mike Soroka has been far and away the team’s best starter, putting himself not only in the Rookie of the Year race but in the Cy Young race early in the season. Soroka, however pitched just 56 1/3 innings between the Majors and minors last season and figures to have some degree of workload restriction facing him down the line. Lefty Max Fried has also emerged as a largely solid option, but he tossed only 111 innings last year and could see his own innings monitored a bit late in the year.
Last season, Keuchel racked up 204 2/3 innings while working to a 3.74 ERA with 6.7 K/9, 2.6 BB/9, 0.79 HR/9 and a 53.7 percent ground-ball rate. Keuchel’s strikeout and ground-ball rates have dipped in recent seasons, particularly in 2018, and he also saw both his 2016-17 seasons shortened a bit by injuries. All of that has taken some of the shine of the lefty, but it’s also a fact that he’s posted a sub-3.00 ERA in three of the past five seasons. Even when throwing out his Cy Young campaign, Keuchel has a 3.77 ERA with a premium ground-ball rate and above-average control through his past 518 1/3 innings.
Based on that track record, there’s little doubt that he’ll be an upgrade for the Braves — especially when considering who he’ll likely replace. Gausman would appear to be the odd man out in this situation, as he’s struggled through the worst season of his career and could very well be bullpen-bound. If he can manage to find success in that admittedly presumptive new role, the benefit to the Braves would be twofold; not only would they get another quality arm in the ‘pen, they’d have a starter working deeper into games (Keuchel) and thus not forcing the bullpen into action as frequently.
Keuchel drew interest elsewhere around the league, with the Yankees in particular being mentioned as an aggressive pursuer. However, Joel Sherman of the New York Post reports that the Yankees had a very clear cutoff with their offer and were not willing to budge beyond paying Keuchel the prorated portion of the $17.9MM qualifying offer (Twitter link). That base salary would’ve paid Keuchel about $11.16MM through season’s end — assuming a deal is completed tomorrow. The Cardinals, Twins and Rays were all mentioned as interested parties, to varying extents, although Juan Toribio of MLB.com tweets that Tampa Bay was never strongly after the lefty. Those teams will instead have to turn to the trade market in order to find rotation upgrades, as Keuchel was the open market’s lone realistic difference-maker.
The Braves, too, still figure to be active on the trade market moving forward. Even after adding Keuchel to the rotation, the Atlanta bullpen has been shaky and could stand to be improved upon. The team has been relying on Luke Jackson in the ninth inning as well as a host of converted starters and a series of low-cost fliers on veterans (e.g. Jerry Blevins, Anthony Swarzak). Newcomb has shown well in that role, as has Touki Toussaint, which makes the situation a bit less dire, but it’d nevertheless be a surprise if the Braves didn’t add at least one more reliable arm to the relief corps. Keuchel may very well be the highest-profile addition made by Atlanta between now and July 31, but he’s unlikely to be the only one.
Cubs Sign Craig Kimbrel
June 7, 6:44pm: The team has formally announced the contract.
Jon Heyman of MLB Network has further details. (Links to Twitter.) Games-finished escalators can boost the option buyout value from the $1MM base; Kimbrel can add another $1MM apiece by reach 53 games finished in 2020 and 2021. The option vests if Kimbrel finishes 110 total games between 2020 and 2021, at least 55 of which come in the latter season, and a doctor determines that he does not have a “non-temporary” injury (the details of which are surely defined in the contract).
Kimbrel also picks up no-trade protection. He can’t be dealt this season without his approval. He’ll have an eight-team no-trade list for the 2020 season. The deal does not provide any limitations thereafter.
9:11am: Kimbrel has passed his physical, per Heyman (Twitter links), and an introductory press conference is set to take place prior to today’s game.
June 5, 9:06PM: The deal pays Kimbrel $10MM this season, and $16MM in both 2020 and 2021, ESPN.com’s Jeff Passan reports (Twitter link). There is a vesting option for 2022 that pays Kimbrel $16MM if it vests, Heyman reports (via Twitter), while it becomes a club option if it doesn’t vest. The buyout of the option year is $1MM.
Also from Passan, Kimbrel could potentially join the Cubs before June 20. The closer “has been electric” in workouts in front of scouts.
8:21PM: Craig Kimbrel‘s long wait in the free agent market is over. The closer has agreed to a multi-year deal with the Cubs that will become official once Kimbrel passes a physical, The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal reports (links to Twitter). Rosenthal originally reported the dollar figure as close to $45MM, and MLB Network’s Jon Heyman reports that Kimbrel will be paid $43MM (via Twitter) through the 2021 season. Kimbrel is represented by SportsMeter.
Unsurprisingly, Kimbrel’s protracted time on the open market wrapped up shortly after the amateur draft. Since Kimbrel turned down a one-year, $17.9MM qualifying offer from the Red Sox, any team that signed the veteran closer had to give up some type of compensation in the form of at least one draft pick, plus potentially international signing bonus money and even another pick depending on the identity of the team who landed Kimbrel. However, this draft pick compensation no longer applied to Kimbrel (or fellow free agent holdout Dallas Keuchel) once draft day hit, removing one of the key hangups any interested team might have had about a signing.
As well, Kimbrel and his representatives aimed very high in their initial contract demands, reportedly looking for a nine-figure deal that would’ve set a new record for a free agent closer. That said, it’s very common for free agents to hit the market with a big asking price as a starting point, yet Kimbrel’s market never seemed to really develop even as the offseason continued and his contract demands fell into the three-year range.
It could be that the market has simply shifted, and front offices are no willing to commit the type of long-term financial commitments (especially with draft and international market penalties involved) for free agent stoppers that were available to the likes of Aroldis Chapman, Kenley Jansen, or Mark Melancon just as recently as the 2016-17 offseason. That said, it’s still a surprise to realize that over a third of the season elapsed before any club was willing to ink a player with as sterling a track record of ninth-inning success as Kimbrel.
With a career 1.91 ERA, 14.7 K/9, and 4.23 K/BB rate over nine seasons and 532 2/3 career innings, Kimbrel’s resume could very well eventually land him in Cooperstown down the road. While 2018 wasn’t as dominant as some of his past years, Kimbrel still seemed to have a viable platform year with a 2.74 ERA, 13.86 K/9, and 3.10 K/BB over 62 1/3 frames for the World Series-champion Red Sox.
Beyond the surface numbers, however, there were some red flags. It was hard to ignore Kimbrel’s increased struggles in the second half of last season, and then through Boston’s playoff run (a 5.91 ERA over 10 2/3 postseason innings). Kimbrel has also had some control issues in two of the last three seasons, with a 4.48 BB/9 last year and a 5.09 BB/9 in 2016. These issues could have been enough for teams to hesitate about guaranteeing five or six years to a pitcher in his 30’s (Kimbrel turned 31 in late May) when he was perhaps already showing some signs of slowing down.
Multiple teams were linked to Kimbrel’s market at various points over the last seven months, including several showing increased interest in the last couple of weeks as the draft (or, the qualifying offer expiration date) approached on June 3. The Rays, Phillies, Braves, Brewers, Twins, Nationals, and Red Sox all had some degree of interest while Kimbrel was available.
While the Cubs always seemed like a good on-paper fit, they seemingly only emerged late in the game due to some unexpected luxury tax room opening up. Ben Zobrist‘s placement on the restricted list on May 8 means that his salary no longer counted towards Chicago’s luxury tax calculations, and if Zobrist misses the entire season (which seems increasingly likely at this juncture), the Cubs would have around $9MM to work with, money has seems to have fueled their push for Kimbrel.
Theo Epstein and company headed into the offseason with a need for bullpen help, with closer Brandon Morrow undergoing elbow surgery in November and still without a clear timetable to return. Despite needs in the pen and elsewhere on the roster, however, the Cubs were very circumspect about their winter spending, due to a desire to stay under the maximum luxury tax threshold and team chairman Tom Ricketts’ controversial claim that “we don’t have any more” to spend.
Prior to the Kimbrel signing, Roster Resource projected the Cubs at just over $227.7MM in luxury tax payroll, putting the team in line for a 20% tax on every dollar spent above the $206MM luxury tax line, and then an additional 12% surtax for going more than $20MM over the line. The average annual value of Kimbrel’s deal works out to $14.333MM per season, thus keeping the Cubs from exceeding the $246MM maximum penalty threshold. Spending more than $246MM would cost the Cubs 62.5% surcharge on the overage, and their top draft pick in 2020 would be dropped by ten slots.
So it could be a win-win situation for Chicago, as the team looks to both avoid the top tax threshold while also getting a closer to bolster a bullpen that has generally been around the middle of the pack this season. With Pedro Strop returning from the injured list and now Kimbrel’s addition, the Cubs suddenly have a much deeper pen to help them in their fight to win the NL Central. Signing Kimbrel prior to June 3 would’ve cost the Cubs not only more money in salary, but also $500K in international bonus pool money and their second-highest pick in the 2019 draft (which ended up being the 64th overall selection).
For Kimbrel and his representatives, landing a multi-year contract represents some measure of a victory after the long wait, as several suitors were only interested in inking Kimbrel to a one-year deal for the remainder of the 2019 campaign. While three years and $43MM is considerably less than Kimbrel expected at the start of the winter, the term isn’t far from four years/$70MM predicted by MLB Trade Rumors’ Top 50 Free Agents list back at the start of November, though nobody could’ve expected the wild path Kimbrel could take to eventually land his next contract. If Kimbrel ends up pitching up to expectations, one suspects several teams will be kicking themselves over not signing Kimbrel when they had the chance.
The stopper is undoubtedly relieved to simply get his focus back on baseball, as he’ll now join a contender in pursuit of another World Series ring. The question now is when Kimbrel will actually join the Cubs, as while he has been training on his own in preparation for the season, it remains to be seen how long it will take for him to ramp up to be ready for MLB hitters. The other looming question could concern Kimbrel’s effectiveness, as other players whose qualifying offer-induced long waits in free agency (Stephen Drew and Kendrys Morales in 2014) both struggled badly after sitting out months of the season.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images