For the past two years, one of the main issues that has plagued the Chicago Cubs is their poor bullpen and closer situation.
They had an opportunity to reunite with their former closer Craig Kimbrel this offseason after he hit the open market, but coming into this campaign, they thought Adbert Alzolay was going to be their answer after he finished 2023 with a 2.67 ERA and was 22-of-25 on save opportunities.
Kimbrel ultimately signed a one-year, $13 million deal with the Baltimore Orioles as the Cubs were ready to turn things over to Alzolay.
Unfortunately, that didn't come to fruition when he began this year terribly by blowing the most saves in the league at one point that caused manager Craig Counsell to go in a different direction with that role before he went down with an injury that resulted in undergoing Tommy John surgery.
It seems like Chicago might have found their closer of the future in Porter Hodge after he has posted a 2.08 ERA in his 35 appearances as a rookie, but he'll also have to work on not blowing saves after converting only five out of his eight opportunities.
As for their decision to not bring back Kimbrel, that seems to have been the right one.
According to Jeff Passan of ESPN, the Orioles have made the shocking decision to designate the veteran for assignment after he has had a rough back half of the season with a 10.59 ERA in 19 appearances following the All-Star break.
Kimbrel was moved out of the closer role when he blew his sixth save of the year back on July 25, but Baltimore was hoping he would still be able to be part of their bullpen mix.
That just never came to fruition as his struggles continued, giving up nine earned runs in 3.2 innings of work across four outings during September that ultimately forced the Orioles to make this decision.
The Cubs brought in Kimbrel during the 2019 season by handing him a three-year, $43 million contract in the month of June.
He got off to a rough start in Chicago, posting a 6.53 ERA that season and a 5.28 ERA the following year in the COVID-shortened campaign, however, when he rebounded in 2021 to post a 0.49 ERA across his 39 outings, they flipped him to the Chicago White Sox for Nick Madrigal and Cody Heuer.
It will be interesting to see where Kimbrel ends up.
He undoubtedly is one of the best closers in Major League Baseball history with the fifth-most saves of all time, but his last two years have shown he is not the same player he once was.
Still, another team could take a chance on him and claim him off waivers if they are so inclined.
