CHICAGO -- Craig Kimbrel was firing baseballs into a net inside a barn on his property at one point during his offseason. A friend of his walked by and the pitcher invited him to stand next to the plate, giving Kimbrel the visual of a batter for his workout.
The next day, his friend had carved a makeshift hitter out of plywood and propped it up in front of the netting.
"I guess not everybody likes standing in," Kimbrel said with a laugh.
The Cubs are hoping that continues to be true for Major League hitters, who have been tormented by Kimbrel's rising heater and knee-buckling curve for years. On Friday, Chicago officially unveiled Kimbrel as its newest addition, signing the closer to a three-year contract that is worth $43 million guaranteed and could keep him in a Cubs uniform through 2022.
• What you need to know about Kimbrel on Cubs
Kimbrel was the most logical target for the Cubs over the offseason -- given the team's need for an impact late-inning arm -- but circumstances did not allow the move to happen until now. The team's play through the first two-plus months was a crucial component. Logistics, however, also played a big role. The Cubs had more financial wiggle room now than over the offseason, and Kimbrel's signing no longer included Draft-pick compensation.
"We saw it as a unique opportunity," Epstein said. "How often can you add an elite closer like Craig, somebody who's arguably on a Hall of Fame trajectory, with the need that we have midseason, without giving up any prospects? That's just such a great opportunity for the Cubs.
"We all sat down and said, 'If there's a way to make this happen, we want him to be wearing a Cubs uniform.'"
CHICAGO -- Craig Kimbrel was firing baseballs into a net inside a barn on his property at one point during his offseason. A friend of his walked by and the pitcher invited him to stand next to the plate, giving Kimbrel the visual of a batter for his workout.
The next day, his friend had carved a makeshift hitter out of plywood and propped it up in front of the netting.
"I guess not everybody likes standing in," Kimbrel said with a laugh.
The Cubs are hoping that continues to be true for Major League hitters, who have been tormented by Kimbrel's rising heater and knee-buckling curve for years. On Friday, Chicago officially unveiled Kimbrel as its newest addition, signing the closer to a three-year contract that is worth $43 million guaranteed and could keep him in a Cubs uniform through 2022.
• What you need to know about Kimbrel on Cubs
Kimbrel was the most logical target for the Cubs over the offseason -- given the team's need for an impact late-inning arm -- but circumstances did not allow the move to happen until now. The team's play through the first two-plus months was a crucial component. Logistics, however, also played a big role. The Cubs had more financial wiggle room now than over the offseason, and Kimbrel's signing no longer included Draft-pick compensation.
"We saw it as a unique opportunity," Epstein said. "How often can you add an elite closer like Craig, somebody who's arguably on a Hall of Fame trajectory, with the need that we have midseason, without giving up any prospects? That's just such a great opportunity for the Cubs.
"We all sat down and said, 'If there's a way to make this happen, we want him to be wearing a Cubs uniform.'"
Kimbrel said that he spent most of his time training at Montverde Academy outside Orlando, Fla. He had a trainer there for workouts and top-notch baseball facilities, which alum Francisco Lindor helped create through substantial donations. Kimbrel said one of the high school catchers helped out with some mound sessions.
"He was great," said the pitcher. "We might see him one day."
Kimbrel, 31, has a career 1.91 ERA to go along with 333 saves and 14.7 strikeouts per nine innings over nine seasons in the Majors. Last season, the right-hander had a 2.74 ERA with 96 strikeouts against 31 walks in 62 1/3 innings for the Red Sox.
Epstein said they sent a scout, alongside "super scout" David Ross, to watch Kimbrel throw a bullpen session a week ago. Ross actually caught Kimbrel in the closer's Major League debut with the Braves in 2010, and the former Cubs catcher spent a lot of time talking to the pitcher about the environment that manager Joe Maddon, Epstein and the players have created in Chicago.
"It's the Chicago Cubs," Kimbrel said. "He didn't have to tell me all that much about the culture of this place and what's expected here."
Kimbrel will earn $10 million this year, followed by $16 million in both 2020 and '21. If his option for '22 does not vest, the Cubs will have a $16 million club option, or a $1 million buyout, for a fourth year. There will be salary coming off the books in the upcoming seasons, but the Cubs made it known since early in the offseason that there was little financial wiggle room for this year.
Part of the payroll equation was altered when 38-year-old veteran Ben Zobrist was placed on the restricted list on May 8 to tend to a family matter. Zobrist's return this season is uncertain, meaning Chicago would have north of $9 million of his $12.5 million '19 salary to reallocate if he is not activated for the remainder of the season. Epstein has maintained contact with Zobrist, but there is still no timetable.
"We're here for Ben," Epstein said. "He's part of the Cubs family, and he knows that the door is open for him if it's ever an appropriate time for him to return. It'd be wonderful to see both those guys wearing Cubs uniforms together at the same time."
Even with the unexpected budget room, the Cubs had to play well enough to convince the front office to go all in on this type of transaction this early.
"If we're not playing that well and our record is a little bit different," Cubs pitcher Jon Lester said, "I think that probably changes their outlook on things. … [The front office] stepped up big for us. That's a huge thing for us."
Epstein noted that he addressed the team Friday morning not only to introduce Kimbrel, but also to credit the players for doing their part in making this addition happen.
"The job they've done the first two months of the season," Epstein said, "playing really good baseball and putting us in a great position, led us to do what contending teams do, which is look outside for help. We think that this team certainly has a chance to accomplish our goal, which is win the World Series."

May 6, 2018
The Red Sox edged the Rangers on Saturday night in Arlington (BOS 6, TEX 5) and maintained a slim division lead over the surging Yankees. Of note is that Boston closer Craig Kimbrel worked a perfect ninth for the save (and in the process lowered his ERA to 1.23). Speaking of Kimbrel and saves, there's also this ...
Indeed, Kimbrel is the 32nd member of the 300 saves club, and, as you see above, he got there at a younger age than anyone before him. Also note that lockdown save percentage.
As for the history-making out, it was naturally enough a strikeout ...
For his career, Kimbrel has struck out 41.8 percent of opposing batters, which is a remarkable figure. Speaking remarkable figure, Kimbrel coming in Saturday night boasted a career ERA of 1.79 and a park- and league-adjusted ERA+ of 225 -- i.e., 125 percent better than the league-average mark. To put that latter stat into further context, the great Mariano Rivera had a career ERA+ of 205, the best ever among pitchers with at least 1,000 career innings.
As for Kimbrel, the 2015 and 2016 seasons raised concerns that he might be in premature decline, but since the start of the 2017 season he's been dominating hitters at peak level. It remains to be seen what Kimbrel's actual decline phase will look like, but assuming it's a normal one he's looking very much like a future Hall of Famer. He'll be a free agent this coming offseason.

Source: CBS Sports

By Dayn Perry

June 19, 2017
When Craig Kimbrel stepped on the pitching rubber at Yankee Stadium on June 6 and took his predatory, pterodactylian pose—bent at the waist, right arm held askance like an open wing—what had been a taut baseball game between New York and Boston, with its usual parry and thrust, instantly became something else. It became a one-man Broadway show, a well-attended game of catch between Kimbrel and his catcher, Christian Vázquez, and an emphatic statement about relief pitching evolved to its highest order.
Summoned in the eighth inning, Kimbrel would throw 30 pitches to close a 5–4 Red Sox win. The Yankees put none of them in play. Kimbrel obtained the final four outs while striking out five batters, the overage due to a devious 88-mph curveball that was as hard for Vázquez to catch as it was for the batter, Didi Gregorius, to hit. The outing made Kimbrel the first pitcher in history with three games in which he recorded more strikeouts than outs while working at least one inning.
Such lack of contact has become routine against Kimbrel. He is a human mute button. Never has a baseball been more unhittable than when Kimbrel throws it. Already the toughest pitcher to hit with at least 400 career innings (.152 batting average against), Kimbrel is building what could be the most unhittable season in history. Opponents are batting .086 against him, which would blow away the record by a pitcher with at least 60 innings. Naturally, that record (.126) is held by Kimbrel, vintage 2012.
In 30 appearances this year Kimbrel has allowed only 46 balls to be put in play. He gave up one hit in May. Righthanded batters began the year 0 for 47 against him. He has faced 111 batters and struck out 59, an all-time-record rate of 53.2%, while walking only five.
“You couldn’t even do that in a video game,” says Boston reliever Joe Kelly. “The game won’t even let you strike out that many. And he’s doing it in the major leagues. He has the best stuff I’ve ever seen.”
Relief pitching is the monster that is swallowing baseball as we used to know it, and it is growing. Relievers threw more innings last year than in any other season in history, and they are on pace to break that record this year. Buoyed by increased velocity and a growing inventory of power arms, teams are making a priority of not just getting outs from relievers but also keeping the ball out of play. The 10 highest bullpen strikeout rates of all time have occurred in the past 10 seasons, and this year’s rate for the first time has cracked the threshold of one strikeout per inning.
Offense is wilting in the back half of games. Hitters are batting .244 against relievers, a number that could challenge the lowest mark in history—.237 in 1968, when offense was at its modern nadir and bullpens threw half as many innings as today. There is no foreseeable end to the trend. Last year 36 major leaguers, including Kimbrel, threw 100 mph, according to Statcast data. Meanwhile, at least 71 minor league pitchers hit 100, according to Baseball America, a 37% increase in minor league triple-digit flamethrowers in just three years.
Kimbrel is the standard-bearer for this movement of ferocious pitching, unlikely considering he's barely 6 feet, went 3–7 as an undrafted 160-pound high school senior, was demoted to low A ball in his second year in the minors, has a soft philanthropic heart, rides his bicycle to Fenway Park, is so laid back that he naps before the first pitch, and he blows up hitters without taunts or gamesmanship. Opposing fans have a hard time working up dislike for him.
“People hate me just because of the uniform I’m wearing,” he says. “They don’t know who I am. Honestly, I can’t even say that’s their true feeling. It’s more like, ‘O.K., I feel like I need to yell at you. I feel like I need to rag you.’
“I love it. God gave me the ability to throw a baseball, and I get to do it with conviction against the best in the world every night.”

Al Tielemans/SI

To hear Kimbrel tell the story, his power may be divinely bestowed, but sheetrock enhanced it. From the time he was 12, Kimbrel would work summers as a helping hand for his father, Mike, an electrician in Huntsville, Ala. One day in 2006, after graduating from Lee High and having committed to pitch at Wallace State, a junior college in Hanceville, Ala., Craig was on a residential job with a friend and Matt, one of Craig’s brothers. Mike was working on another house.
Craig and his friend needed to install an outlet in the kitchen. First they’d have to move a stack of about a dozen sheetrock panels that leaned against a wall. “We grabbed the sheetrock, and all of a sudden the whole stack was coming down on me,” Craig says. “It happened real fast. I tried to get out of the way, but it didn’t work out so well. The sheetrock fell on my left foot and broke it. They rushed me to the hospital.”
Kimbrel’s foot was in a cast for three months. To keep his arm fresh, he would play long toss from his knees at a nearby soccer field. He would throw a yellow, dimpled, rubber-coated ball the length of the field over and over. Kimbrel believes this not only increased his arm strength but also allowed him to learn about generating power from his torso by being forced to isolate his upper body. (Limited from workouts by the cast, he also gained weight; he now weighs 200 pounds.)
Not long after returning to pitch in the spring as a starter, Kimbrel, who threw in the low 90s in high school, hit 95. The Braves, his favorite team, drafted him in the 33rd round, but Kimbrel returned to Wallace State for a second season. Atlanta drafted him again—this time 30 rounds earlier. The Braves took stock of a short, righthanded pitcher with a power arm and a mediocre changeup and immediately told him his future would be in the bullpen.
“I didn’t want to do it at first,” he says. “Everybody wants to start. But when they told me I’d probably get to the big leagues faster if I was in the bullpen, I was like, ‘O.K. That’s fine.’
“The key for me is every pitch I throw, I want to throw like, ‘I’m trying to get this by you.’ Starters can’t always do that.”
Specialization suits an all-out pitcher who doesn’t have a third pitch. Kimbrel has appeared in 575 professional games, all but one (on a rehab assignment last year) in relief, and never thrown more than three innings. He has never faced a major league hitter for the second time in a game.
His path to the majors took a detour in 2009 when the Braves demoted him and his 10.97 ERA from high A Myrtle Beach to low A Rome. Kimbrel had tried to improve his changeup, an effort that caused him to lose his arm slot, his control and his velocity. The pitching coach at Rome, Jim Czajkowski, gave Kimbrel some advice: “Forget throwing the changeup. Just be an aggressive pitcher. Go get ’em. You’ll quit dropping your arm and you’ll quit walking guys.’ ”
Says Kimbrel, “That’s what I’ve done ever since.”
He was in the big leagues the next spring at age 21 and was named the National League Rookie of the Year the following season. During those years with the Braves, Kimbrel was so touched by team visits to children’s hospitals that he and his wife, Ashley, began regularly donating time and money to support pediatric cancer research and treatment. The couple is expecting their first child in November.
“We all at one point looked up to ballplayers,” says Kimbrel, “so it’s important to understand there’s children out there doing the same to you.” He regularly receives fan mail from kids who are “Kimbreling,” posing in the idiosyncratic pre-pitch stance he began using in the 2010 postseason. (“I don’t know why I did it, but it worked, and when something works, you don’t change it,” he says.)
He wound up in Boston last year after trades by the rebuilding Braves and Padres. He has made five All-Star teams, led the league in saves four times (he leads again this season) and has seen his average fastball velocity increase from 95.3 as a rookie to a career-high 98.7 this year. Batters are hitting .079 this season against his fastball, the lowest batting average against that pitch in baseball.
“He’s just got the perfect fastball,” Kelly says. “He has the perfect spin rate, the perfect velocity and the perfect release. It’s truly rare. Even when I play catch with him, the ball comes out of his hand like nobody else’s. When I’m done playing catch with him I always retie the strings and laces on my glove because they come loose. Imagine trying to hit it.”
Says Yankees DH Matt Holliday, “First of all, he’s throwing 98, 99, so that’s hard enough. But there’s something about the way he throws it that makes it so difficult to track. You swing at one place, and very rarely does the ball end up at that place.”
Kimbrel’s fastball averages 2,324 revolutions per minute, slightly more than the major league average of 2,225. As important as the velocity or spin rate is the way Kimbrel throws the ball—and it goes back to the sheetrock accident.
Like great hitting, great pitching requires separate and sequential rotations—the turn of the hips followed by the turn of the torso, like one tornado atop another. After a pitcher brings the ball up to its loaded position, the hips fire first, followed by the torso, after which the arm and hand come around, using energy generated by the sequential cyclones.

Al Tielemans/SI

Drawing from that regimen when he used to throw from his knees, Kimbrel generates exquisitely timed and power-fully fast rotations. As his belt buckle turns toward the hitter in the first rotation, the boston across his jersey remains facing third base in a closed position to the batter’s box. When his torso finally does turn to deliver the arm and hand—with his chest leading toward the plate—a hitter perceives that his arm is coming around late.
With the late rotation, Kimbrel hides the ball longer from the hitter, and when he keeps his hand directly behind the ball from his low three-quarters delivery, he gets the “perfect fastball spin” that Kelly noted. It is true south-to-north backspin, the greatest gravity-fighting spin. The ball appears to “hop” to the hitter because it doesn’t sink the way normal fastballs do.
There is one more special ingredient to the Kimbrel heater: trajectory. The typical pitcher throws with a stride about equal to his height. At 5' 11", Kimbrel is an undersized pitcher with an above-average stride length: about 6' 4". Combining his short stature, his long stride and his low release point, Kimbrel lets go of the baseball only five feet off the ground—unusually low. Hitters are unaccustomed to seeing fastballs thrown with an overhand delivery so low to the ground. When Kimbrel throws at the top of the strike zone or above, as he often does, the baseball does not seem as if it’s traveling downhill, as hitters are accustomed to. It appears to stay on a flat plane or, when it’s especially high, to hit the catcher’s mitt higher off the ground than when it left his hand. “It looks like it’s coming out of his shirt and going up,” says Holliday.
Kimbrel’s odd flight path has been made more effective by the modern hitter’s preference for hitting up on the ball to create lift. Kimbrel says he has learned how to read hitters’ swings to know the proper planes on which to throw his fastball and curve.
“[A batter’s] swing plane is going to tell you what he can and cannot get to,” Kimbrel says. “I think your chances of getting a swing and miss or a pop-up is better because guys are hitting that low pitch now. It’s flip-flopped. When I first came up, it was, ‘Pound it down in the zone, pound it down in the zone.’ So now it’s, ‘Throw it up in the zone and throw your off-speed down in the zone.’ It’s been interesting to see it change in the last six, seven years.”
Kimbrel is perfectly equipped for this specialized game, especially now that manager John Farrell sometimes deploys him in the eighth inning. Kimbrel has secured more than three outs in games as many times this year as he did all of last year (five).
“Nothing is automatic,” Farrell says, “but Craig Kimbrel is darn close.”
Says Kelly, “What’s really amazing is he has the world’s slowest heartbeat. He never panics. Never.”
Kimbrel will spend the last half hour before a game napping in the clubhouse. When he wakes up, he stretches, gets a massage, applies red-hot ointment to his arm, walks to the bullpen in the fifth inning and chats amicably with his buddies. “I’m chill until it’s time for me to step on the bullpen mound,” he says. “Mentally, I can lock in as soon as I toe the rubber, and as I come through the gate I get to the next level.”
The June 6 game at Yankee Stadium typified how endgames in baseball have become stunning displays of power pitching with little contact and few rallies. Protecting a lead over the final three innings, Boston relievers Kelly, Matt Barnes and Kimbrel threw 64 pitches, 45 of which registered 95.3 mph or above. The Yankees hit only one of those 64 pitches out of the infield, their only hit against the relievers.
The odds of stitching hits together against Kimbrel are especially high. Only eight times in 437 games has Kimbrel allowed three hits in one inning, and never in his past 49 appearances.
He ended the night in a flourish. Facing New York rightfielder Aaron Judge, the league’s leading home run hitter and one of its hottest batters, Kimbrel threw a trio of fastballs at the top of the strike zone, each one harder than the last, starting with a 98.2-mph heater for a called strike and one at 99.4 for a swinging strike.
“The velocity is not the feeling I’m looking for,” he says. “It’s how the ball comes out of my hand. The radar gun doesn’t always tell the truth, especially with life on the fastball. That’s what spin rate is. That’s life.
“I don’t even know what the trick is to create it. I don’t know if it’s the wrist, the arm angle, how long you hold the ball or what. The only way I can describe it is, it feels right.”

The last pitch shot out of his hand perfectly, traveling 99.6 mph, spinning madly, and crossing the plate just about the same height off the ground as when it left his hand. Judge swung, but the pitch, like most from Kimbrel, was unhittable. When the ball popped into Vázquez’s mitt, it was the sound of Kimbrel again putting his stamp on baseball, as if affixing a raised seal to an official document. This, his fastball notarized, is the right pitcher with the right stuff at the right time. This is state of the art.

By Tom Verducc, Sports Illustrated

February 16, 2014
LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. -- Craig Kimbrel no longer has to worry about the arbitration process. More importantly, the Braves have positioned themselves to not have to worry about who is going to handle their closing duties over the next four seasons.
The Braves have signed Kimbrel to a four-year, $42 million contract that includes a $13 million option for the 2018 season. If the option is exercised and all of the potential bonuses are earned, the package has a maximum value of $58.5 million.
Kimbrel's contract is the largest ever given to a closer who has not yet become a free agent. It also provides him the largest guarantee and average annual value ever given to any first-year arbitration-eligible pitcher.
"I'm very excited," Kimbrel said. "This is where I wanted to be. I'm glad we were able to come to terms and get this done.
"First of all, I want to thank God for giving me the ability that he has and blessing me to allow my family to be so close to me and be in the place where I've grown up always wanting to be. Now, I get to say I get to be here for four or five more years. If I didn't want to be here, this wouldn't be going on. I couldn't be any happier."
The Braves announced the deal on Sunday morning, approximately 24 hours before they had been scheduled to go to an arbitration hearing that would have determined whether Kimbrel's 2014 salary would be the team's offer of $6.55 million or his request of $9 million.
Kimbrel is guaranteed an average salary of $10.5 million over the next four years. If the maximum value is realized, he'll earn an average of $11.7 million over the next five years.
"I think we had to be creative and as we put the deal together," general manager Frank Wren said. "There was a lot of creativity at the end to try to bridge the gap of being fair to both sides. To his credit, he was willing to bridge it in a creative way. If he continues to perform at this level, he's going to get more. If he's just great or just good, then it's another number. I think it's a fair concept for both of us."
Through his first three seasons as Atlanta's closer, Kimbrel has managed to exceed the lofty expectations he produced during his successful Minor League days, when he was known as "the right-handed Billy Wagner." In the 210 appearances he has made since the start of the 2011 season, Kimbrel has converted 138 of 153 save opportunities, produced a 1.48 ERA and struck out 42.9 percent of the batters he has faced. No other Major League closer has converted more than 110 saves during this span.
While becoming the youngest pitcher to ever record a 50-save season in 2013, Kimbrel also became the first closer in Major League history to record 40-plus saves in each of his first three full seasons.
"You just look at what he has contributed to the team his first three years in the big leagues," Wren said. "It's not only special, it's historic."
If Kimbrel extends his recent trend, which has allowed him to draw comparisons to the likes of Wagner and Mariano Rivera, this has the potential to be a team-friendly deal. Had Kimbrel lost Monday's scheduled hearing and then extended his recent success this upcoming season, he would have been in line to gain a salary between $10-11 million in 2015, which would have been the second of three potential arbitration-eligible seasons.
In the event that Kimbrel would have won this year's hearing, there would have been reason to wonder if the if the Braves would have to trade him at the end of this upcoming season to delete the risk of him proving to be too expensive during his final two arbitration-eligible seasons.
But after Kimbrel's agent, David Meter, got the negotiations rolling again last week, it became apparent that the Braves did not want to lose an elite closer, and Kimbrel did not want to say goodbye to a team that he has dreamed of playing for dating back to his childhood days in Huntsville, Ala.
"I want to stay here with a group of guys that I came up with and I'm comfortable with," Kimbrel said. "In the game of baseball, it's who you're around, it's the team you're on and the guys you're surrounded by. We have an awesome core here. I think this is a core that can win for a long time."
With this agreement, the Braves have taken another major step in their comprehensive plan to keep a solid portion of their talented young core together in preparation of the opening of their new stadium in 2017. Over the past two weeks, the organization has committed more than $220 million with extensions given to Freddie Freeman, Jason Heyward, Julio Teheran and Kimbrel.
"Knowing what it is going to cost us [to keep Kimbrel] over the next five years allows us to put everything in place to carry out the plan," Wren said. "I talked a little bit about the plan the other day and this is all part of it."
Kimbrel said the decisions to make the previous commitments to the aforementioned players only increased his desire to stay in Atlanta.
"I can see what we're doing as an organization and ballclub," Kimbrel said. "We're going out to win. As of right now, we're planning on winning for a long time. This is where I want to be. I want to be closing out division titles and championships and World Series. We've got the team to do it and I'm very excited."
By Mark Bowman MLB.com

This marks the first year these awards have been presented in honor of two of the greatest closers in baseball history. Hoffman, Rivera, Dennis Eckersley, Rollie Fingers, Goose Gossage, Bruce Sutter, Lee Smith, Billy Wagner and John Franco comprised the nine-man committee that determined the winners.
Kimbrel also gained this honor in 2012, when it was recognized as the Rolaids Relief Man Award. He has led the NL in saves during each of his first four full seasons.
"I was kind of iffy about attending a World Series I wasn't a part of, but in respect to Trevor Hoffman and Mariano Rivera, the awards being named after them, I felt like I needed to be here to accept the award," Kimbrel said. "I'm very humbled, and grateful to have this opportunity."
Further cementing his place as one of the game's most dominant closers, Kimbrel converted 47 of his 51 save opportunities, while recording a 1.61 ERA over 61 2/3 innings. The hard-throwing right-hander limited opponents to a .142 batting average and struck out 95 of the 244 batters (38.9 percent) that he faced.
Kimbrel converted each of his last 26 save opportunities this season. In the 32 1/3 innings that encompassed a stretch that began on June 24, he surrendered just three earned runs (0.84 ERA) and 14 hits (.131 opponents batting average).
Despite the fact that he made his Major League debut just three months after Kimbrel, Holland provided indication of the level of respect Kimbrel has from his peers.
"I think [Kimbrel has] been doing it for so long, you've got to respect that," Holland said. "Being on the mound in the ninth inning is not easy a lot of times. I think as someone who does it, he makes it look too easy sometimes."

BOSTON -- New Red Sox boss Dave Dombrowski on Friday night made his first big move to rebuild the franchise after its third last-place finish in four years, acquiring four-time All-Star closer Craig Kimbrel from the San Diego Padres for four prospects. Kimbrel, who saved 39 games for the Padres this season, spent the first five years of his career with the Atlanta Braves before they traded him to San Diego on the eve of the 2015 regular season. The Red Sox assumed $25 million remaining on Kimbrel's contract but have him under control for up to three more seasons. "Moving to the American League, I'm excited," Kimbrel said during a conference call. "It's a league that has the big bats. And being a pitcher, you want a challenge of facing the big bats." Editor's Picks Red Sox surrender too much for Kimbrel Craig Kimbrel is one of the game's best closers, but he's not worth the four prospects that Boston dealt to San Diego. The Padres received outfielder Manuel Margot, infielders Javier Guerra and Carlos Asuaje, and left-hander Logan Allen. Only Asuaje and Margot made it as high as Double-A last season. "We didn't give anything up at the major league level to affect our club this year," Dombrowski said. "It's good talent. Some of it's a while away." Kimbrel, 27, went 4-2 with a 2.58 ERA in 61 appearances last season, 43 of them save opportunities, and he struck out 87 in 59 1/3 innings. Since the start of his first full season in 2011, he leads major league relievers with 224 saves and ranks second among them with a 1.70 ERA and 523 strikeouts. He recorded his 200th save in his 318th game, the fastest in major league history. "There are various names out there, but [he's] one of the best in baseball," Dombrowski said. "We look for him to be our guy back there for years to come." Dombrowski does not shy away from making trades, whether to build for the future or improve his current roster. His moves have included a December 2007 trade that sent 22-year-old Andrew Miller, Cameron Maybin and four others to the Marlins for Dontrelle Willis and Miguel Cabrera; the December 2009 trade that sent Curtis Granderson (28 at the time) to the New York Yankees and Edwin Jackson (26) to the Arizona Diamondbacks in a three-team deal for Phil Coke, Austin Jackson, Max Scherzer and Daniel Schlereth; and the July 2014 trade of Austin Jackson (27) to the Seattle Mariners and Drew Smyly and Willy Adames to the Tampa Bay Rays in the three-team deal that netted David Price. He also was responsible for trading Randy Johnson to the Mariners (1989), Trevor Hoffman to the Padres (1993), Edgar Renteria to the St. Louis Cardinals (1998) and Johan Santana to the Minnesota Twins (1999). Relief Needed Craig Kimbrel will help a Red Sox bullpen that struggled last season, giving them a high-velocity arm that can miss bats. Red Sox Bullpen - Last Season MLB Rank ERA 4.24 26th WHIP 1.40 26th K per 9 IP 7.8 26th Avg FB velo 92.2* 26th *Kimbrel: 97.3 mph (5th-highest among relievers) -- ESPN Stats & Information San Diego finished fourth in the National League West last season despite a roster makeover by general manager A.J. Preller. He said trading Kimbrel for young -- and inexpensive -- players gives him the payroll flexibility that could allow the Padres to get back into the free-agent market. It also will give them depth. "I think when you're trading a player of Craig's caliber, I think we knew we needed quality and quantity. So I want to say all four guys are important to us," Preller said. "To really get to a championship level, you've got to have depth, you've got to have numbers and you've got to be strong up the middle." With the acquisition of Kimbrel, Boston will move Koji Uehara into the eighth-inning role. Junichi Tazawa will handle the seventh.

As Craig Kimbrel progressed through his first full Major League season, there was reason to wonder why there had been any concern about his readiness to serve as the Braves' closer.

Blessed with an overpowering fastball and a knee-buckling breaking ball, Kimbrel cruised through most of 2011, becoming one of the game's most dominant closers.

Adding to the list of awards and honors received over the past few weeks, Kimbrel was unanimously voted the National League Rookie of the Year Award winner on Monday. He received all 32 first-place votes and finished ahead of Braves teammate Freddie Freeman.

"When I got the call, I was definitely surprised to hear it was a unanimous decision," Kimbrel said. "It's an honor. For it [to be unanimous] makes it that much more special."

Currently in Hawaii to attend Peter Moylan's upcoming wedding, Kimbrel was on his hotel balcony with his fiancée when he learned he had become the first unanimous NL Rookie of the Year Award winner since Albert Pujols in 2001.

Kimbrel received congratulatory texts from many of his teammates and plans to savor the accomplishment with Eric O'Flaherty, Kris Medlen and Moylan this week in Hawaii.

2011 NL ROOKIE OF YEAR VOTING

Voting results for NL Rookie of the Year, conducted by the Baseball Writers' Association of America

"This is a good place to celebrate," Kimbrel said. "So I'm sure we'll be doing some of that."

The 2011 vote marked the first time teammates finished first and second in Rookie of the Year Award balloting since 1989, when the Cubs' Jerome Walton finished just ahead of Dwight Smith.

Kimbrel becomes the seventh player in Braves franchise history to win this award, and the first since Rafael Furcal in 2000. He is the first Braves pitcher to earn the honor, which is determined via balloting conducted by members of the Baseball Writers' Association of America.

Freeman received 21 second-place votes and was included on 28 of the 32 ballots. He and Kimbrel were the only Braves players to receive votes this year.

"It's really nice to have this honor, but it's not going to take away from what happened near the end of the year or anything like that," Kimbrel said. "If anything, the end of the year is going to help me strive to do better and become a better pitcher."

Kimbrel's memorable first year in the Majors was tarnished by late-season struggles that accelerated his team's September collapse. But while the forgettable conclusion was the final memory of a record-setting season, it did not detract from the overwhelming belief that Kimbrel was more impressive than any other NL rookie this year.

On his way to setting a new Major League rookie record with 46 saves, Kimbrel limited opponents to a .178 batting average and recorded 127 strikeouts in just 77 innings, an average 14.84 strikeouts per nine innings.

That kind of dominance allowed Kimbrel to join Carlos Marmol (2010), Eric Gagne ('03) and Billy Wagner (1998 and '99) as the only pitchers to record at least 14 strikeouts per nine innings and notch at least 30 saves in the same season.

"I understand that I did have, numbers-wise, a good year, but there's a lot of room for improvement, as well," Kimbrel said. "I'm always looking for a way to get better and to help my team more. That's one thing I'll do this offseason. I always expect to do better the next year and the next year."

Kimbrel's presence allowed Braves fans to feel less concerned about the fact that Neftali Feliz had been part of the mega-package used to acquire Mark Teixeira from the Texas Rangers in 2007. Feliz won the 2010 American League Rookie of the Year Award after notching 40 saves, which stood as the rookie record until Kimbrel came along this year.

Unfortunately for Kimbrel, one of the lasting images of his memorable season will be the disgust he displayed after issuing three walks and blowing the one-run ninth-inning lead the Braves held before losing their must-win regular-season finale to the Phillies.

It was one of the three blown saves for Kimbrel in September. Before the skid, he had blown just five of his first 48 save opportunities, and the final-month struggles could have been a product of fatigue. His 79 appearances ranked second in the Majors.

"My body felt good through the season," Kimbrel said. "I felt like the workouts I did last offseason were very beneficial to this year. As for throwing, I'm not going to start throwing until about January. Last year, I started throwing a little bit earlier, because going into Spring Training, I was fighting for a job and had to come in to prove myself. This year, I'm going to start a little bit later. I did learn that the season is long, and you do throw a lot."

Kimbrel experienced a few hiccups during the season's first two months before emerging as simply dominant through the middle portion of the season. In the 38 appearances from June 12-Sept. 8, he worked 37 2/3 scoreless innings, limited opponents to a .112 batting average and recorded 67 strikeouts.

"He's had a Rookie of the Year-caliber year," Braves third baseman Chipper Jones said after the regular-season finale. "We wouldn't have been here without him. He's going to be a better closer down the road because of this."

ATLANTA -- Craig Kimbrel joined yet another exclusive club when he notched his Major League-high 40th save to end Friday night's 5-2 win over the Marlins.
According to the Elias Sports Bureau, Kimbrel became just the third Major League pitcher to register 40 or more saves in each of four consecutive seasons. Trevor Hoffman did it twice (1998-2001 and 2004-07) and Francisco Rodriguez matched this accomplishment from 2005-08.
Kimbrel's success this year adds to the accomplishment he achieved last year, when he became the first pitcher in Major League history to record at least 40 saves in each of his first three full seasons.
Kimbrel has successfully converted 90.7 percent of the 197 save opportunities he has had since the start of the 2011 season. His 178 saves during this span are 47 more than any other Major Leaguer over the same period.

CHICAGO -- Long before he established himself as baseball's most dominant closer, Craig Kimbrel was assigned to write about his career ambition. When he wrote about his desire to play for the Atlanta Braves, his third-grade teacher made him redo the assignment, because she did not believe he should've viewed becoming a big league ballplayer as a realistic goal.
"My mom laughs about it all of the time," Kimbrel said. "I don't know if my mom has the paper or not. But it would be pretty cool to find it to see what I said back then."
Like many other young boys who grew up in the Southeast over the past two decades, Kimbrel had visions of becoming the next Chipper Jones. But the Huntsville, Ala., native never dreamed he would actually become the man the baseball world now widely recognizes as the next Mariano Rivera.
As Rivera bids adieu to his illustrious Hall of Fame career, Kimbrel stands as the most likely candidate to spend the next decade-plus as baseball's premier closer. Through the first 228 appearances of his career, the hard-throwing Braves right-hander has notched 138 saves and surrendered just 122 hits.
The saves-to-hits ratio is just one of the many ridiculous stats Kimbrel has created during the early years of his career. His 1.40 career ERA stands as the lowest mark produced by any Major League reliever with at least 225 appearances.
"He's one of the most dominant pitchers I have ever seen," third baseman Chris Johnson said. "He's amazing. It's weird. He's like one of those guys when he gives up a hit, you're thinking, 'What happened?'"
There was certainly a feeling of disbelief last week when Kimbrel squandered a two-run ninth-inning lead against the Nationals and suffered his first blown save in more than four months while surrendering three runs in an appearance for the first time in his career. Of course, it should be noted that the only ball that left the infield during this outing was the game-ending grounder that slipped under Andrelton Simmons' glove, allowing two runs to score.
"Any time I go out there and don't do my job, it's a tough one to swallow," said Kimbrel, who enters the regular season's final week with a Major League-leading 49 saves.
Fortunately for the Braves, those instances when Kimbrel has blown a lead have been few and far between. Since becoming Atlanta's closer at the start of his rookie season in 2011, the hard-throwing reliever has notched a 90.1 save percentage. Over the past two seasons, he has blown just seven of his 98 save opportunities.
Kimbrel spent much of the 2010 season at the Minor League level and then became a key cog in the Braves' bullpen once September arrived. He proved effective enough to be used in each of the four games they played against the Giants during that year's National League Division Series.
"Getting the chance to pitch in the [2010] playoffs and have that adrenaline and the need to learn to pitch with that kind of pressure after having completed just 20 innings in the big leagues, I think that is why I have been able to handle myself a little better," Kimbrel said.
Along with having a high-octane fastball and a knee-buckling curveball, Kimbrel possesses the stoic mindset that allows him to deal with the cruel nature of his role.
Pitching coach Roger McDowell first recognized this mindset when Kimbrel issued two walks and committed an error to load the bases with no outs in what was just his eighth career appearance, on June 20, 2010. The young reliever proceeded to strike out the next two batters -- David DeJesus and Mike Aviles -- he faced and then got Billy Butler to pop up to keep the game tied and give his teammates a chance to beat the Royals.
"Closers have a different personality," McDowell said. "It's just a different mentality that I don't think can be taught. Either you have it or you don't."
After blowing a one-run ninth-inning lead in the must-win regular-season finale against the Phillies that ended the Braves' September collapse in 2011, Kimbrel showed he has the mental resolve to handle the closer's role from a mental perspective.
All Kimbrel did was come back last year and produce one of the most dominant seasons by a Major League reliever. Along with becoming the first pitcher to strike out more than half the batters he faced (116 of 231), he converted 42 of 45 save opportunities and compiled a 1.01 ERA. The .186 on-base percentage he surrendered ranked as the third-best mark in a season by a reliever. The only two better marks were notched by Hall of Famer Dennis Eckersley in 1990 (.172) and '89 (.175).
"Looking back on some of those numbers from last year, it's still kind of hard to believe," Kimbrel said. "Luck and good timing play a part."
While Kimbrel has not been as utterly dominant as he was last year, he is approaching the postseason in the midst of an impressive stretch. Three of the five runs he has surrendered in his past 51 appearances scored during that forgettable inning against the Nationals last week.
During this 51-game stretch, Kimbrel has posted a 0.71 ERA, converted 39 of 40 save opportunities and limited opponents to a .240 on-base percentage. This impressive run began immediately after he allowed the Reds to hit back-to-back two-out homers in the ninth inning on May 7.
"What he has done is just incredible," catcher Brian McCann said. "He's doing stuff that has never been done before. He just keeps getting better."

This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs. Author: Carroll Rogers Article Source: http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20120515&content_id=31356420&vkey=notebook_atl&c_id=atl