Why Craig Kimbrel believes the Phillies can help him to regain his dominance

Craig Kimbrel achieved every baseball player’s ultimate dream when he won the World Series in 2018. But it didn’t happen like he always imagined it would.

For one thing, he didn’t throw the final pitch.

Despite piling up 42 saves that year for the Boston Red Sox, Kimbrel struggled in the playoffs. So, he stayed in the bullpen at Dodger Stadium when starter Chris Sale came on in the ninth inning and struck out the side to trigger a celebration.

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Five years later, Kimbrel wants another chance, which partially explains why this week he finalized a one-year, $10 million contract with the Phillies, the defending National League champs.

“Not to lie, I still do want to throw that last pitch,” Kimbrel said Thursday in a Zoom news conference. “It’s always been a goal of mine. It’s something I dreamed of as a kid. But do I understand that there are a lot of things between here and there? Yes, I understand that as well.”

Among those things: Actually taking over the closer role for a team that prefers not to designate one reliever as the closer.

Kimbrel, 34, leads active pitchers with 394 saves in 13 major-league seasons. He’s closing in on becoming the seventh pitcher to save 400 games, “and I do expect to get there,” Kimbrel said.

But when Kimbrel met in person last month with Phillies pitching coach Caleb Cotham and director of pitching Brian Kaplan, and in a follow-up conversation with manager Rob Thomson, he was told in no uncertain terms that he will only be part of a late-inning mix that includes Seranthony Domínguez, José Alvarado, and maybe newly acquired lefty Matt Strahm.

“Rob Thomson wanted to make sure that Craig would be comfortable with signing and not, say, being ‘The Closer,’” said president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski, who traded for Kimbrel with the Red Sox in 2015. “Not to say he won’t close games. Not to say that can’t happen. But it was important to discuss that beforehand.”

Kimbrel indicated he was more concerned with the substance of those conversations, particularly with Cotham and Kaplan, than having the closer label affixed to his name. And what he heard from the Phillies’ pitching brain trust were ways that he could improve on a 2022 season in which he posted a 3.75 ERA and 22 saves for the Dodgers but also lost both the closer job in mid-September and a spot on Los Angeles’ postseason roster.

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Specifically, Kimbrel said Cotham and Kaplan discussed biomechanics and other analytical approaches to help sharpen his command. Kimbrel hit five batters and gave up 51 hits last season, both career highs.

“I think I gave up enough singles for three years,” said Kimbrel, who allowed more singles last year (32) than total hits in 2014, 2016, and 2018, when he was the most dominant closer in baseball. “I think there’s a lot of things that I can look at that I can change, and it can change the outcome of a lot of things.”

But Kimbrel also said too much tinkering caused him to struggle at times last season. Perhaps the Phillies can help him to find a happy medium that suits a fastball-curveball pitcher who has been a closer from the day that he got drafted by the Atlanta Braves in 2008.

“Going through those bad stretches has really helped me dig in and realize what works for me and what does not work with the analytics and the way that pitches are looked at and spin [rate] is looked at, arm angle, all those things,” Kimbrel said. “It’s going to help me understand that a certain pitch works to a certain guy. Or I might need to throw a certain breaking ball to righties and a different one to lefties.

“I’ve got a couple pitches that I learned last year in L.A. that I’m going to be able to bring in and use. I’m already excited.”

Kimbrel represents the last major move in an offseason in which the Phillies signed All-Star shortstop Trea Turner, No. 4 starter Taijuan Walker, and Strahm. The payroll sits at approximately $248.8 million, firmly in luxury-tax territory and just shy of the second-tier threshold of $253 million.

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“You can always get better, so you’re never satisfied in that regard,” Dombrowski said. “But I think the core of our club is put together at this point.”

Six weeks from pitchers and catchers reporting to spring training in Clearwater, Fla., Kimbrel can begin thinking about that elusive last pitch — and the possibility that he could emerge as Thomson’s best choice to throw it.

“I personally feel like I have a lot of baseball to play, and I’m going to have those opportunities,” Kimbrel said. “I just have to focus on throwing the ball over the plate, getting my pitches down, and getting on a roll.”

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