Craig Kimbrel 2024

[Moose Milligan]

I don’t think I’d be in favor of bringing him back.  What we’re experiencing now is a stretch where he looks good. I’m assuming he will have more flare ups. 
 

If they brought him back next year I’d want them to use him in tandem with Felix, using Felix for whichever part of a lineup is harder in the 8th or 9th. 

[Frobby]

2 hours ago, sportsfan8703 said:

Kimbrel really turned it around. He’s an all star as of now. 2nd in the AL with 19 saves. 0.99 WHIP. Probably better than Holmes heads up statistically. 

Maybe we pick up that option for next year and take some pressure off Bautista and avoid pitching him back to backs. 

I don't look at total saves in a vacuum.  19 out of 23 is about 83%.   That's not all-star performance.   Also, he had two other games where he entered with a save opportunity and had to be pulled from the game because he was doing poorly.   In one game Cano bailed him out, in the other Akin came in and gave up the tying run for the blown save, but it was really Kimbrel's fault.   

The ERA, WHIP and K/9 are all very good, but Kimbrel has not been consistent.  Good to see him with back-to-back one-run saves, for sure.

[Roll Tide]

1 minute ago, Frobby said:

I don't look at total saves in a vacuum.  19 out of 23 is about 83%.   That's not all-star performance.   Also, he had two other games where he entered with a save opportunity and had to be pulled from the game because he was doing poorly.   In one game Cano bailed him out, in the other Akin came in and gave up the tying run for the blown save, but it was really Kimbrel's fault.   

The ERA, WHIP and K/9 are all very good, but Kimbrel has not been consistent.  Good to see him with back-to-back one-run saves, for sure.

Yesterday was certainly a shaky performance 

[Too Tall]

I couldn't watch the last inning. Was sure Kimbrel didn't have two in a row in him. Glad I was wrong but it got a little dicey. We need pen help this year - particularly for the late innings. Elias has all off season to construct next year's pen around I HOPE a healthy Mountain. My opinion, for next year I'd rather spend on starting pitching and extentions if possible, than bring Kimbrel back.

[sportsfan8703]

1 hour ago, Moose Milligan said:

I don’t think I’d be in favor of bringing him back.  What we’re experiencing now is a stretch where he looks good. I’m assuming he will have more flare ups. 
 

If they brought him back next year I’d want them to use him in tandem with Felix, using Felix for whichever part of a lineup is harder in the 8th or 9th. 

The thinking would be to let Kimbrel absorb some of the 3 run, and 2 run, save attempts while not going forced to go with Bautista in back to back games so often. If Dave Robertson is a perennial 1 yr 8-10ish million reliever as a set up man, then Kimbrel at 13 is pretty fair. 

It’s a long ways away. More focused on this year. As of now, Kimbrel is an All Star. Agreed that this is possibly his high water mark as far as his averaged numbers go. 

[Warehouse]

1 hour ago, sportsfan8703 said:

The thinking would be to let Kimbrel absorb some of the 3 run, and 2 run, save attempts while not going forced to go with Bautista in back to back games so often. If Dave Robertson is a perennial 1 yr 8-10ish million reliever as a set up man, then Kimbrel at 13 is pretty fair. 

It’s a long ways away. More focused on this year. As of now, Kimbrel is an All Star. Agreed that this is possibly his high water mark as far as his averaged numbers go. 

Agree. I think Kimbrel is worth it as long as (a) Elias thinks he’ll at least be a mid-3 ERA guy next year, (b) there are no signs of an impending sharp physical drop-off, and (c) we don’t think he’ll pout and slack if he’s not the primary closer chasing save records.

[RZNJ]

2 hours ago, Moose Milligan said:

I don’t think I’d be in favor of bringing him back.  What we’re experiencing now is a stretch where he looks good. I’m assuming he will have more flare ups. 
 

If they brought him back next year I’d want them to use him in tandem with Felix, using Felix for whichever part of a lineup is harder in the 8th or 9th. 

I wouldn’t hate it if they brought him back but I think I’d pocket the 12-13M and go in a different direction.

[OsFanInOhio]

1 hour ago, sportsfan8703 said:

The thinking would be to let Kimbrel absorb some of the 3 run, and 2 run, save attempts while not going forced to go with Bautista in back to back games so often. If Dave Robertson is a perennial 1 yr 8-10ish million reliever as a set up man, then Kimbrel at 13 is pretty fair. 

It’s a long ways away. More focused on this year. As of now, Kimbrel is an All Star. Agreed that this is possibly his high water mark as far as his averaged numbers go. 

This. 1) let Kimbrel absorb the larger lead saves (tho this doesn’t help either of their save stats / all star arguments). 2) you use them to avoid having to use either one back to back if possible, which is nice given Bautista is coming off an injury and kimbrels age / history of back to backs recently. 3) we would likely have to go to the free agent market anyway to look for a high k guy anyway if we are contenders again given our current desire for another back end arm. Why not keep the guy who we’ve seen perform well for us (mostly). 
 

the one downside is he may not want to be in a situation where he isn’t getting all the save opportunities given where his is in his career and his race up the saves leaderboard list with Jansen