Philadelphia Phillies relief pitcher Craig Kimbrel was under no obligation to speak with the media after a crushing Game 7 NLCS loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks. He didn’t appear in the game, and as an impending free agent, the nine-time All-Star didn’t really have any motivation to try to curry favor with local writers.
To his credit, though, Kimbrel — at one of the lowest points in his decorated career — was willing to answer tough questions when approached by Phillies Nation Tuesday evening.
While it felt like Kimbrel flirted with disaster for the entirety of the 2023 postseason, he allowed just one hit and zero runs through his first four relief appearances in the playoffs, including recording a save for the Phillies in Game 1 of the NLCS.
From there, however, the wheels came off.
“Game 3 and 4 were pretty awful,” Kimbrel said bluntly when asked to evaluate his postseason performance.
Kimbrel entered Game 3 of the NLCS in the ninth inning, with the score tied at one. With the series having shifted to Arizona, the Phillies were looking to take a commanding 3-0 lead.
Instead, Lourdes Gurriel was walked by Kimbrel to begin the home half of the ninth inning. Pavin Smith then reached first base on a ground ball up the middle that Bryson Stott was able to stop, but not in time to record any outs. Smith would eventually steal second. With a chance to win the game, Emmanuel Rivera scalded a ball to shortstop, but Trea Turner was able to fire the ball home, where J.T. Realmuto eventually tagged out Gurriel to keep the game alive. But after Kimbrel issued a walk to Geraldo Perdomo to load the bases, Ketel Marte singled into center field to win Game 3 for the Diamondbacks.
Nonetheless, manager Rob Thomson called upon Kimbrel to pitch the bottom of the eighth inning in Game 4 a day later. This time, Kimbrel took the mound with a 5-3 lead. The Phillies needed six more outs to take a 3-1 lead in the series.
Instead, Kimbrel was shelled. Gurriel doubled to lead off the inning. Kimbrel would get Evan Longoria to line out to Brandon Marsh in left field for the first out, but any hopes of him seeing his way through the inning with the lead still intact were dashed when Alek Thomas hit a 93 mph fourseam fastball into the pool in right-center field, tying the game.
In Kimbrel’s defense, it wasn’t a terrible pitch, as it actually ended up outside the strike zone box shown on TBS‘ telecast. But when an at-bat ends with a fan with snakes on his jersey hopping into the pool to retrieve a souvenir, that doesn’t really matter much.
To make matters worse, Kimbrel couldn’t stop the bleeding after allowing the game-tying home run. He struck out Perdomo, but then Marte, the eventual NLCS MVP, singled into left field. Thomson, trying to avoid using José Alvarado with a third game in as many days looming on Thursday, allowed Kimbrel to face Corbin Carroll, the blazing fast, left-handed hitting outfielder certain to win NL Rookie of the Year. Kimbrel hit him on the first pitch of his at-bat, allowing the winning run to move into scoring position.
Eventually, Alvarado came in, but Gabriel Moreno greeted him with an RBI single into center field, plating Marte and giving the Diamondbacks a 6-5 lead that they wouldn’t relinquish.
It wasn’t a perfect regular season for Kimbrel, but he was largely effective in helping the Phillies to navigate through two injured list stints for Alvarado and an underwhelming season from Seranthony Domínguez. Both the 71 games and 69 innings that Kimbrel logged during the regular season were the most he had since he won NL Rookie of the Year with the Atlanta Braves back in 2011.
On the workout day before Game 3 of the NLCS, Kimbrel talked pretty openly about how special it was to redeem himself in 2023 and return to the postseason stage after a subpar season with the Los Angeles Dodgers the prior year saw him left off the team’s NLDS roster.
By the time the Phillies boarded the plane back for Philadelphia on Saturday night — even after rebounding to win Game 5 of the NLCS — Kimbrel’s approval rating among the team’s fanbase had plummeted, perhaps into the single digits.
Thomson wanted Kimbrel’s next outing to be in a relatively low-leverage situation, if such a thing exists in October. He got the chance in the top of the eighth inning of Game 6, with the Phillies trailing 5-1 and Thomson having to try to balance not wanting to give up on the game with not burning arms like Jeff Hoffman and Alvarado with a Game 7 likely looming the next day.
For whatever reason, the powers that be at Citizens Bank Park decided it was still appropriate to do the light show that they unveiled in August for Kimbrel, when he was taking down a bulk of the save opportunities.
There were noticeable boos as Kimbrel trotted in with Guns N’ Roses’ “Welcome to the Jungle” blaring over the speakers as the lights in the stadium flashed. Maybe they were primarily booing the Phillies still doing the light show for Kimbrel. Or maybe it was decided that if the light show was still done, there could be an argument made that what was really being booed was an inability to read the room, as opposed to one of the best relief pitchers in MLB history.
Either way, while no one likes being booed, Kimbrel understood the reception.
“Yeah, I mean, I don’t know. I booed myself after those two games as well,” Kimbrel acknowledged. “I went out there and gave it everything I had, and it just didn’t turn out good for those two games.”
Outside of Mariano Rivera and Trevor Hoffman, almost all great relief pitchers in MLB history are mercenaries. The Phillies were the seventh team that Kimbrel has pitched for, and his fourth since the start of the 2019 season. Kimbrel made $10 million in 2023, and even before his blowup in the NLCS, there’s no guarantee that the Phillies were going to be willing to pay a similar price in 2024, given that Kimbrel is 35 and had a heavy workload in 2023.
After the NLCS, it feels like there’s almost no chance Kimbrel is back in red pinstripes in 2024. Changing teams almost every year is kind of part of the deal as an MLB relief pitcher. As is having your entire year — which featured a lot of highs — defined by two bad outings on the highest stage.
“Well right now, I’m just gonna take in the season … take in these playoffs … like I already have, been going around and telling everybody I’ve enjoyed the season,” Kimbrel said.
“I guess over the next couple weeks and months, we’ll figure out what we’re doing next year.”
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