The Chicago Cubs may regret the Craig Kimbrel deal even more in ’20.
Since winning the World Series in 2016, Theo Epstein and the Chicago Cubs haven’t been that great at teambuilding. There are plenty of examples but one that is starting to really come to light is the contract that they gave to Craig Kimbrel. He signed well into the 2019 season and wasn’t good when he did finally arrive. It makes it worse that the contract was signed for three years instead of just the one shortened (for him) year.
Kimbrel sat out until June 7th, 2019 so he can get a contract that he deemed fair. It worked out for his pocketbook because the Cubs paid him nicely to come to town but it was mostly because they were desperate. He came in and was awful for them when they needed someone to anchor their already suspect bullpen. He made things even worse.