Cubs have baseball’s hottest reliever in closer Craig Kimbrel

Cubs closer Craig Kimbrel has had a rollercoaster of a time here in Chicago. It started badly in 2019 then for the first few games of 2020 it didn’t look like it was going to get any better. Since then, though Kimbrel has been the dominant presence he has been throughout his career.

Nearly two years ago when he signed his three-year, $43 million deal, just about every Cubs fan was ecstatic about the deal. The team’s bullpen was, well, not very good – especially in high-leverage situations. It seemed like the team was blowing late-game leads at an alarming rate and Kimbrel was still out there and looked like the solution.

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But that’s not how things went. Kimbrel wasn’t an answer. His first half-season in Chicago was the worst of his career, plain and simple. In 20 2/3 innings, he posted a 6.53 ERA and gave up nine home runs – a career-worst in roughly half as many appearances. At that point, the signing looked like a total disaster.

Then in the 60-game COVID-shortened 2020 season, he got off to a similarly rocky start. He struggled to find the strike zone and just wasn’t the guy we thought we were going to get. After the first four games, though, things started to change. Going back to August 14 of last year, Kimbrel has been back to his overpowering dominance, not allowing a single run during that span.

Cubs: Craig Kimbrel is back to his old ways – at last.

After finishing the year so strongly, expectations for Kimbrel were high heading into 2021. After a slow start in Cactus League action, he’s looked every bit the future Hall of Famer we’d hoped for in 2019 in the regular season.

During his first appearance this year against the Pirates he came into a non-save situation and made short order of the Bucs, striking out the side in order – all looking. Then he came in for his first save situation the next day against Pittsburgh and was great yet again, striking out two and getting a weak line drive to end the game.

But his best outing of the year came on Thursday at PNC Park. Kimbrel entered with the bases loaded in the eighth with the Cubs up two and one out in the inning. He struck out the next two batters to get out of the jam, then came back in the ninth to close it out for his second save of the year – and his 350th all-time.

Something is different. We don’t know exactly what yet, but Kimbrel is looking like a force late in ball games and it’ll end up paying off one way or another for the Cubs this year. I think this Kimbrel is here to stay – which is good news for this club.