With Jansen Gone, Dodgers Plug Bullpen Hole With Craig Kimbrel

It’s no April Fool’s Day joke.

Craig Kimbrel, who broke into the big leagues with the Atlanta Braves, has been traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers, ostensibly filling the bullpen hole created when Kenley Jansen signed with Atlanta as a free agent.

The Friday swap reunites Kimbrel with former Braves teammate Freddie Freeman, whose earlier signing by the Dodgers gave Atlanta the payroll flexibility to sign Jansen.

Kimbrel, a 33-year-old right-hander who had struggled with the Chicago White Sox after arriving in a deadline deal with the crosstown Cubs, has 372 career saves but was mainly a set-up man with the Sox, working ahead of incumbent closer Liam Hendriks.

The Dodgers surrendered surplus outfielder A.J. Pollock, like Kimbrel entering the final year of his contract, to land the bearded strikeout artist.

An eight-time All-Star, Kimbrel plugs the biggest hole on the Dodgers, who won a World Championship in 2020 but failed to repeat after the Braves, who succeeded them, beat them in a six-game NL Championship Series last October. The Dodgers had won 106 games, one less than the San Francisco Giants, during the 2021 regular season, with Jansen their closer.

Kimbrel is about to start the final season of a four-year contract worth $58 million, while Pollock is completing the fourth year of a similar deal worth $55 million. Pollock, 34, had 21 homers in 117 games for the 2021 Dodgers but has not played in more than 150 games since 2015.

The key to the trade from the Los Angeles perspective is Kimbrel’s comfort level in the National League, where he has spent the bulk of his 12-year career.

The Huntsville, AL native began with a bang, winning NL Rookie of the Year honors for the Braves in 2011 and leading the league in saves in each of his first four seasons. He had a career peak of 50 in 2013.

Known for a mound pose that resembles a DeLorean with open doors, Kimbrel has a lifetime earned run average of 2.18, thanks to four seasons in which he yielded less than two runs per nine innings. In recent years, though, he has been subject to bouts of wildness and gopherballs, leaving him with an earned run average of 6.53 in 2019. He was only marginally better with the 2021 White Sox, finishing with a 5.09 mark after posting an 0.49 ERA in 39 games for the Cubs.

Kimbrel, who turns 34 on Memorial Day weekend, has topped 40 saves five times and has reached triple digits in strikeouts — a rare achievement for a reliever — in four separate seasons. In his career, he has 1,026 strikeouts in 628 1/3 innings pitched.

Prior to the Kimbrel trade, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts had declined to name Jansen’s replacement as closer but indicated that Blake Treinen would probably get first dibs. Treinen led the league with 32 holds last year.

Roberts is banking heavily on the post-season experience of Kimbrel, who has pitched in eight different series spread over ten seasons. Should the Braves and Dodgers lock horns again in post-season play, which many experts consider likely, the late-inning chores could result in multiple matches between Kimbrel and Jansen.