Craig Kimbrel Rumors: Mets and Brewers Still in Play

The calendar is creeping and creeping towards May and still Craig Kimbrel and Dallas Keuchel remain unsigned. With regards to the former, Athletic and Fox Sports reporter Ken Rosenthal provided an update over the weekend:

Couple of notes from videos: #Mets insured deGrom’s $137.5M extension, just as they do with all their big contracts. NYM, MIL among teams still in touch with Kimbrel, But Mets, with Diaz, would sign Kimbrel only if he was willing to pitch in any role, not just in ninth inning.
— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) April 20, 2019

It is interesting to see that Kimbrel’s steadfast desire to be a standard 9th inning closer is a possible hangup. It’s easy to see why from the Mets’ side — they’ve already got a stout closer in Edwin Diaz.

The Brewers could definitely use Kimbrel, as their bullpen is not as strong as it was late last season. They lost Joakim Soria to free agency and converted Corbin Burnes to a starter. The latter was a double whammy as Burnes has thus far fared horrendously as a starter — he has a 10.7 ERA through four starts and was optioned to AAA. Adding Kimbrel would mean the Brewers could use Josh Hader and Jeremy Jeffress as they please before the ninth inning.