Chicago Cubs: Craig Kimbrel deal keeps looking worse

The Chicago Cubs may regret the Craig Kimbrel deal even more in ’20.

Since winning the World Series in 2016, Theo Epstein and the Chicago Cubs haven’t been that great at teambuilding. There are plenty of examples but one that is starting to really come to light is the contract that they gave to Craig Kimbrel. He signed well into the 2019 season and wasn’t good when he did finally arrive. It makes it worse that the contract was signed for three years instead of just the one shortened (for him) year.

Kimbrel sat out until June 7th, 2019 so he can get a contract that he deemed fair. It worked out for his pocketbook because the Cubs paid him nicely to come to town but it was mostly because they were desperate. He came in and was awful for them when they needed someone to anchor their already suspect bullpen. He made things even worse.

The Cubs really should have seen that coming based on how he ended his career in Boston. He was pretty bad for them at the end to the point where they stopped using him in the playoffs. They did end up winning the World Series, however, so it was all good for him. Before his struggles to end his Red Sox career, he was one of the greatest closers that ever lived. We’re talking a 2.08 ERA and a 0.945 WHIP to go with 346 career saves.

The Cubs might have thought that they were getting that guy but they weren’t. He had an 0-4 record and only recorded 13 saves. He had a 6.53 ERA and 1.597 WHIP. His WAR was actually negative with -0.5. It was not a good time for him on the field and the Cubs have him making 43 million dollars from 2019-2021 with a 2022 team option. It is hard to see him bouncing back from that in 2020 with only 60 games on the schedule.

It makes sense why the Cubs would do it because they were desperate. The problem is, they keep falling into traps during desperate times which is why they are locked into Kimbrel (unless they can somehow trade him).

This Kimbrel deal keeps looking worse every day. The way he is trending, it is hard to see them being able to trade him if the 60 game season goes sideways for the team in terms of their record. That is going to be trouble because there is a lot of talent on this roster that they seem to be wasting because they are having a hard time making the right decisions around them.