Chicago Cubs: Craig Kimbrel makes sense as a trade candidate

A man once hailed as a savior of a scuffling bullpen could prove to be valuable to the team in other ways before this summer’s trade deadline.

When Craig Kimbrel signed a three-year deal in 2019, it was a highly-praised move that made all the sense in the world at the time. To that point, the team’s most glaring need was clear: a lockdown ninth-inning guy.

The closer at the time was an unreliable Brandon Morrow, and with Chicago potentially just “one move away,” Theo Epstein decided to make a splash and grab a potential Hall of Fame closer to try and put the Cubs over the top.

Fast forward two tumultuous years for not only Craig Kimbrel, but the entire Cubs organization, and it’s clear the move didn’t work as intended. The new front office is heading in the complete opposite direction from where they were in 2019, with the departures of many key pieces of the 2016 team being allowed allowed to walk in free agency, including Jon Lester and Kyle Schwarber. That’s not to mention those being floated in trade rumors such as Kris Bryant and Willson Contreras.

Cubs could be hard-pressed to unload Craig Kimbrel and his contract

The Cubs are seemingly more than ready to trade key members of their roster in the name of rebooting and keeping profits down as they’ve already demonstrated with Yu Darvish. With this in mind, it makes sense that they listening on Bryant, Contreras, and even Kyle Hendricks. But one name that fits the bill for a trade, perhaps more so than the other names, is Kimbrel, who has received very little attention in the trade circuit.

The veteran closer has gotten very little, if any, attention in the rumor mill, but he fits the profile of a player the Cubs should be trying to get rid of. Kimbrel is projected to make $16,000,000 this year, likely far more than the Cubs would be willing to pay the inconsistent righty, even with the Ricketts reportedly increasing the baseball operations budget. Kimbrel’s time with the Cubs has been a bumpy ride, to say the least, evidenced by a 6.00 ERA over 41 games with just 15 saves, an extreme HR/9 of 2.8, and an BB/9 of 6.0. He did have a great SO/9 of 14.5, however.

All of this eventually led to Kimbrel losing his closing job to Jeremy Jeffress, and all of this would make it seem as though the Chicago closer would be untradeable. However, after being demoted from the closer’s role, he seemed to find what made him such a dominant closer in years past. In September 2020, Kimbrel made his last eight appearances of the year before one scoreless postseason outing.

His September was pure dominance as he pitched 7 1/3 innings, gave up just three hits, did not allow a home run, didn’t hit any batters and allowed batters to have just a .250 OPS against him. Most impressively, Kimbrel didn’t issue a single free pass the entire month, a monumental feat for him all things considered.

This was certainly a welcome development for the Chicago Cubs as Kimbrel recouped some of his trade value and flashed that he still has closer stuff. But if Jed Hoyer does decide to trade Kimbrel, what teams could make sense?

Cubs could look to the Astros for a potential trade partner

The Houston Astros make sense in a Kimbrel trade for a couple reasons. First, they’re in need of a true closer after Ryan Pressly didn’t exactly excel in the role last year, and their bullpen moves this offseason have been limited to a couple of smaller signings.

Second, Kimbrel is the type of pitcher that Astros pitching coach, Brent Strom, loves to work with. Strom has a history of getting a ton out of pitchers with elite level stuff even if they’ve struggled in the past (Charlie Morton, Gerrit Cole and Justin Verlander – to name a few). The hang-up here is money.

James Click, the Astros GM said the team was likely done spending big after re-signing Michael Brantley, and Kimbrel won’t come cheap. The Cubs would likely have to kick in some money to make the deal work. That might prevent a deal from getting done, but it certainly doesn’t make things impossible.

The Cubs aren’t going to get any elite prospects for Kimbrel, but they could get guys with some intriguing tools or pitches to work with. Someone that could make sense for the Cubs to target is righty fireballer, Jojanse Torres. Signed out of the Dominican Republic in 2018, Torres dominated in his first year in the minor leagues, going 12-0 with a 1.71 ERA across two Single-A levels.

Torres possesses a 70 grade fastball that sits from 96-98 MPH and tops out at 100, one of the best you’ll find, a solid 55 grade slider and an OK 50 grade changeup. A couple issues with Torres are his lack of control and the fact that he’s already 25. However, he presents an intriguing option for the Cubs to get back in a trade with the Houston Astros if they’re able to maximize his intriguing pitches.

The Cubs could also pivot to another AL contender in sore need of arms

The Minnesota Twins are coming off back-to-back AL Central championship seasons, but haven’t yet found any success in the postseason. As things stand now, their current closer would be Taylor Rogers who is coming off a season in which he had an ERA over 4.00.

They’re also losing Trevor May and Sergio Romo, both of whom were key pieces of their bullpen in 2020. The Twins are still in position to contend in the AL this year but they need bullpen help in the worst way possible and Kimbrel is the perfect option to close for them. The issue here is of course, money. The Twins would most likely want to re-sign Nelson Cruz and they may want to save money for their rotation as well, but should consider making Kimbrel their big offseason splash.

A return here unfortunately wouldn’t net the Cubs any of Minnesota’s stacked top 10 prospects, but there is a possibility they could net a few lower tier prospects in the organizational top 30. One intriguing option for Chicago is outfielder Brent Rooker.

A former Southeastern Conference Player of the Year winner at Mississippi State, Rooker is renowned for his power, which MLB Pipeline grades at 60. The righty has lots of potential as a prototypical high OBP and high SLG guy, but has a few red flags. First he’s 26, so there’s not too much more seasoning that can be done before he’s in the majors. Next, he’s not a great defender by any stretch and lastly, he has a nasty strikeout rate, whiffing in 34.7 percent of his plate appearances in 2019. Still, the offensive potential alone is enough to make him apart of a trade for Kimbrel. Especially if Minnesota sends another prospect as well.

The other prospect that could intrigue the Cubs is Chris Vallimont. Vallimont has a good fastball that grades at a 60, as well as a 55 grade slider and a curveball and changeup that are each graded at 50. His fastball sits at 92-96 MPH and his slider gets consistent swings and misses.

The problem with Vallimont is that he lacks a good amount of control. Still, this duo makes a lot of sense as the Cubs would be giving up Kimbrel and getting two high-risk, high-reward prospects.