Chicago Cubs: Craig Kimbrel should be removed as the closer
The Chicago Cubs keep using Craig Kimbrel and it continues to hurt them more and more.
The Chicago Cubs are not having the best time right now. They have lost a good amount of games over the past two weeks and there are a lot of reasons for that. The best hitters on the team are ice cold and some of the starters haven’t been as good as they were to start the season. With that said, their bullpen has been the biggest issue all season long. It is always capped off by lousy performances by Craig Kimbrel.
He was at one time one of the greatest closers who ever lived and that earned him a pretty nice contract with the Cubs. What the Cubs failed to realize was that he was starting to really fall off at the end of his Boston Red Sox career and he carried that negative trend over with the Cubs. He has been bad since his first appearance with the club and it has gotten even worse this year.
He blew a huge game for the Cubs on Saturday night. The Cubs had rallied back to take the lead over the Cincinnati Reds but he was on the mound when they came back to win in the bottom of the seventh inning. It was a seven-inning game because it was the nightcap of a doubleheader. The Reds had the bases loaded and Kimbrel threw a wild pitch to give the Reds a 6-5 victory over the Cubs. It was a bad look for David Ross as leaving him in even though he didn’t have his good stuff was a big mistake.
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That should be the final straw for the Cubs. He shouldn’t be on the mound in high leverage situations anymore. That ship has sailed and the faster the coaches learn it, the better off they will be. If they don’t get this thing fixed and fast, they will be in big trouble down the stretch. It is pretty sad that it has come to this and you really hate to see it but it is what it is. Anyone else would be better for them as the closer at this point.