For the Orioles, Tuesday evening’s garbage time implosion by Craig Kimbrel seems to have been the last straw. The team has seen enough and does not want to bank on a possible revival of his fortunes any longer. Kimbrel was designated for assignment by the Orioles on Wednesday afternoon, with the O’s recalling Bryan Baker from Norfolk to take his place on the roster.
It’s a bitter end for the tenure of Kimbrel, who was signed by the Orioles this past offseason with the idea of being a one-year bridge until Félix Bautista can return next season. Kimbrel’s $12 million deal even included a team option for $13 million for 2025, with a buyout of $1 million, just in case things went well enough that the O’s wanted to keep him around even longer.
They did not go well overall for Kimbrel here with the Orioles. That’s not to say it was all bad, because his first three-plus months of the season had strong results, even with a late April/early May hiccup that saw him briefly bounced from the closer role. After notching his 23rd save of the season on July 7, Kimbrel had a 2.10 ERA while allowing batters to just a .483 OPS across 38 games.
As it turned out, this was the last save that Kimbrel recorded as an Oriole. Depending on how other teams evaluate him this coming offseason and his own inclinations, it could be the final save of his career.
Kimbrel entered into another meltdown period with a disaster of an outing in the last game before the All-Star Break, which the Orioles ended up winning later anyway. He blew another save after the break, then bombed a tied game the next day, and that was the end of attempting high-leverage situations for the possible future Hall of Famer who sits in fifth on the all-time saves list at 440. It would have been fun if Kimbrel pitched so well here that O’s fans could feel invested in that HOF debate in six years.
Ahead of the trade deadline, the Orioles acquired two former Phillies teammates of Kimbrel in separate deals, Seranthony Domínguez and Gregory Soto. If Kimbrel was on form, they probably don’t need to try both of these moves to bolster the bullpen. Domínguez has notched nine saves since arriving. He’s also blown some games thanks to being homer-prone. Soto has rebounded a bit after a disastrous early set of impressions on Orioles fans.
Infrequent lower-leverage use wasn’t suiting Kimbrel very well either. After the Orioles tried to ride out Kimbrel in a ninth-inning garbage time spot on Tuesday night, which he couldn’t even ultimately complete, Kimbrel took a career-worst six runs allowed onto his ledger. That bumped his ERA up to 5.33. He has not had the trust of manager Brandon Hyde for some time and he couldn’t manage to rally enough to do even the minimum to hold a roster spot. Kimbrel has only pitched in three games that the O’s later won since the start of August. Now, he’s gone.
In terms of results so far in 2024, Baker is not much of an improvement over Kimbrel. He’s posted a 4.71 ERA in 17 games to date, with a 5.17 ERA while cooling his heels with Norfolk. But he’s the best option on short notice, so here he is.
If Kimbrel had any other career track record other than the one he has, he probably would have been gone some time before this. The Orioles gave him chances to bounce back, more than maybe he deserved at age 36, and he couldn’t do it. I think that Mike Elias probably had negative interest in taking this step. His hand was forced by the way Kimbrel’s been pitching. Kimbrel is not part of why this season is falling apart. He’s not part of the solution either.
There is one small bit of silver lining for all of the people who reacted negatively to the Kimbrel signing back in December. You will never have to worry about seeing what happens if Kimbrel tries to hold an Orioles lead in the postseason. With how the Orioles are hitting lately, we won’t have to worry about anyone holding an Orioles lead in the postseason, but that’s a whole different story.
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