Former All-Star closer Craig Kimbrel almost made the New York Mets roster coming out of camp, and he's being called up.
The New York Mets bullpen has been stretched thin early in the season, but they’re about to get reinforcements, as Craig Kimbrel will be added to the pen as and lefty reliever AJ Minter made his first appearance in his rehab stint. Both pitchers made one-inning relief appearances at St. Lucie, according to multiple reports.
Kimbrel’s return to the big club is more significant at the moment. He nearly made the Mets roster coming out of camp, but the Mets did some juggling when they decided to keep outfielder Carson Benge and shortstop Francisco Lindor returned to the lineup faster than expected after fracturing his hamate bone. Kimbrel became the odd man out, but now he’s back, and he’ll probably be put to work immediately.
Kimbrell’s main issue in camp was wildness, and his velocity was down as well. The long-time reliever didn’t see the latter as an issue, but it was probably the former that delayed his return. He did hit 94.2 mph on Tuesday, according to Anthony DiComo of MLB.com.
The long-time reliever also had an early opt-out that he elected not to take, and according to Anthony DiComo com he has a $2.5 million provision in his contract that will become guaranteed once he’s activated.
The Mets made a concomitant roster move to create room for Kimbrel as they DFA'ed left-hander Richard Lovelady. ,According to DiComo, Kimbrel will be activated before today’s game against the Athletics, which has a 4:10 start time at Citi Field.
This move is also part of a domino effect. The Mets lost starter Clay Holmes due to a hamstring strain last night, and while Holmes said the injury was just a “twinge,” there’s a good chance he’ll miss at least a start or two. That means Sean Manaea will probably move from the pen to the starting rotation, which means someone has to take his spot in the bullpen.
The other domino that fell last night was the three-inning appearance of swing man Tobias Myers, who ended up finishing last night’s 4-0 loss to the A’s. Myers pitched two scoreless innings but fell apart in the third, so Kimbrel’s availability today could be on the table as a possibility as manager Carlos Mendoza sets up his bullpen availability list.
This is the sort of thing the Mets ended up doing with the bullpen down the stretch in September last year as they made near-daily staff changes, and it’s not a place they want to be. It’s part of the risk GM David Stearns took in leaving the back end of the rotation intact going into spring training, and now the pitching staff is springing some leaks that need to be plugged.