We have returned today for another Friday Funday column, and today we’re going to look at the career of age-38 MLB reliever Craig Kimbrel. In his 17th season this year, he has pitched for three different franchises in 2026 alone—and 12 organizations in the major leagues overall … which is pretty stunning. He’s been very effective, overall, with 440 saves and a 2.67 ERA to go along with a 1.032 WHIP and a 13.8 K/9IP rate. He currently pitches for the Kansas City Royals, who just signed him this Monday.

A nine-time All-Star selection, Kimbrel made his MLB debut in May 2010 at age 22 with the Atlanta Braves, posting 40 Ks in just 20 2/3 innings pitched. The Braves actually drafted him twice: the 33rd round in 2007 and the third round in 2008, both times out of Wallace State Community College in Alabama. In his first full season (2011), he won the National League Rookie of the Year honor and was an All Star as he led the NL in saves for the first of four straight campaigns (2011-2014). Kimbrel was very good.

Those four seasons, put together, are somewhat amazing to look at now: four All-Star nods, 185 saves, a 1.51 ERA, a 0.880 WHIP, and 436 Ks in only 286 1/3 IP. He finished in the Top 10 voting for the NL Cy Young in all four seasons, while also earning MVP votes in three of the years. However, Kimbrel famously blew the save in Game 162 of the 2011 season, and perhaps that was the omen for much of his long career: no matter how impressive his overall stats looked, he often seemed to come up short of it all.

His postseason ERA (4.50) adds to this perception: in 30 October games across 30 innings, he has only managed 10 saves and a 1.433 WHIP. Starting with that blown save in 2011 that kept Atlanta out of the playoffs, Kimbrel just seemed to disappoint his organizations over the years. Despite the dominant four-year stretch, the Braves realized how expensive their star closer was about to become and shipped him to the San Diego Padres as his salary jumped from $655K in 2013 to $9M by 2015 … that’s a big raise.

One could argue that type of closer performance was worth it, but the Atlanta front office disagreed. With the Padres in 2015, now at age 27 and entering his prime, Kimbrel was very good despite a slight dropoff: 39 saves, a 2.58 ERA, and a 1.045 WHIP. San Diego didn’t want to pay the premium for him, so the team traded him to the Boston Red Sox before the 2016 campaign. In three seasons with his third team now, he earned $37.5M while posting 108 saves, a 2.44 ERA, and a 0.906 WHIP. That’s good stuff, yo.

Kimbrel won his only World Series ring to date in October 2018, getting six saves in the process despite a 5.91 ERA and a 1.594 WHIP in nine appearances across 10 2/3 IP. It could be argued the Red Sox won the Fall Classic in spite of his bad performances, especially considering we now know the Fenway Frauds were sign stealing. Either way, he had worn out his welcome in Boston with the uneven pitching results, and the team did not want to keep him. Enter the Chicago Cubs with a $58M offer for four years.

Nice work if you can get it, of course, as the Cubs wanted to chase another title after ending their “curse” in 2016, but Kimbrel barely lasted two full seasons there, signing in June 2019 and getting traded across town to the White Sox in July 2021. In 80 games in between, he posted a 3.22 ERA, a 1.115 WHIP, and just 38 saves—not quite the premium level of production expected with his salary, although still solid numbers overall pitching half his games at Wrigley Field. The Cubs still struggled, though, too.

Thus, his trade to the White Sox. Kimbrel flopped on the South Side to the tune of a 5.09 ERA in 24 appearances, and when he posted a 9.00 ERA in three playoff appearances that October at age 33, the Pale Hose pulled the plug and traded him to the Los Angeles Dodgers before the 2022 season. He spent one mediocre year in L.A.—22 saves, 3.75 ERA, 1.317 WHIP in 60 IP—finishing out that huge contract the Cubs had given him, and he did not appear in the playoffs for the Dodgers that October.

Kimbrel would be entering his age-35 season in 2023 as a free agent, and his star was fading, of course. He’d only made one All-Star team (2021) during the duration of that four-year contract, but the Philadelphia Phillies came calling after their 2022 World Series loss to the Houston Astros. They offered him a one-year, $10M deal, and Kimbrel responded with an All-Star campaign, at least on paper: 3.26 ERA, 23 saves, 1.043 WHIP. Again, though, he struggled in the postseason with a 6.00 ERA and 1.833 WHIP.

That would be the last hurrah, seemingly, for Kimbrel’s MLB career, as for the past three seasons, including the current one, he’s bounced around a lot: Baltimore (2024), Atlanta again (2025), Houston (2025), and the three aforementioned teams this year. His performances have also been uneven, with a 5.33 ERA for the Orioles to a combined 2.25 ERA for the Braves and Astros, to 4.67 ERA in 2026. He seems to be on his last legs, despite still making at least $13M across the last three years with no saves recently.

His last save came with Baltimore, in fact, so Kimbrel has been relegated in his late 30s to low-leverage opportunities. Maybe that will change with Kansas City in the next few weeks, as the Royals bullpen has been a mess this year. It seems as if he peaked in 2017 with the Red Sox, at age 29, with a 3.6-WAR effort in a season that was statistically stunning: 1.43 ERA in 69 IP with just 14 walks—and with 126 Ks and a 0.681 WHIP. Yet even in that playoff campaign? He struggled with a 4.50 ERA and a 2.500 WHIP.

Thus, Kimbrel always has been somewhat of an enigma, although his 22.7 career WAR mark places him in the Top 20 relievers all time. The counting stats we discussed early on in this piece really do shine, although the postseason struggles are pronounced due to the high visibility of the disappointing results. Will he make the Hall of Fame someday? We consider him a borderline case, although the career numbers would earn our vote for such an honor—but we don’t get a ballot. Time will tell, of course, as always.

[Editor’s Note: We have nothing to say about Kimbrel’s funky stance on the mound. It’s unique, though; we give him that.]