Craig Kimbrel’s agent preposterously calls his client the best closer ever

James Kelly • 11/07/2018

Agents are paid to sell their clients. Some exaggerate slightly to increase value. Some over-exaggerate. Craig Kimbrel’s agent is one of the over-exaggerators.

Tis the season for agents to sell their free-agent clients to potential suitors in order to get them the best deal possible.

This pursuit naturally brings about some relative exaggerations on what a player could bring to a potential team. Most of the exaggerations are reasonable and are just used to bump up the offer sheet for their client

Craig Kimbrel’s agent is punting on being reasonable in every sense of the word.

Agent Dave Meter has a fairly straightforward pitch on client Craig Kimbrel. Points out Meter: He’s the best alltime, not just recently but alltime. Lowest ERA, lowest batting average against, lowest OPS against. Also points out he saved all his chances even this postseason.

— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) November 6, 2018

I mean, this is absolutely ridiculous.

Craig Kimbrel is far from the best closer of all time. One could make the argument that he’s not even the best closer in his own division. This is the biggest oversell of all time for somebody Red Sox fans had zero faith in this postseason.

If you want to make the case that Kimbrel is the best in the game right now, I understand. He does have solid overall numbers and he’s been fairly consistent throughout the year.

But to call him the greatest closer of all time is just absolutely preposterous. I’m gonna take this time to remind everyone that the honor of “greatest closer of all time” belongs to one man.

Mariano Rivera.

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Mariano Rivera has more saves than anybody in baseball. Rivera was a 13 time all-star in 19 seasons. In the playoffs, he only got better, posting a .70 ERA over 96 games.

Mariano Rivera allowed 13 runs in his entire postseason career. 13 runs in 141 innings. Kimbrel has allowed 10 runs in 20.2 innings of postseason work.

https://twitter.com/BarstoolHubbs/status/1059866084797505537

Craig Kimbrel in the 2018 postseason:

4 games
5.1 IP
6 H
5 R
5 ER
5 BB
6 K
2 HBP
1 WP
101 pitches/56 strikes (55%)

Of his 16 outs, 3 were on good-to-excellent defensive plays and two others produced runs.

— Johnny Meyer (@JMeyer1120) October 18, 2018

The numbers alone show that nobody is in the same universe as Rivera. I’d be surprised if anybody came within a stone’s throw of his saves record.

But being a closer isn’t just about numbers, it’s about coming into a game and slamming the door shut on a win.

When “Enter Sandman” hit the speakers, the game was already over. Everybody from the opposing manager to the upper-level concession vendors knew it. When Kimbrel comes in the game, he does not inspire that same fear.

He may lock it down at the end of the night but he’s gonna make Red Sox fans’ hearts skip.

https://twitter.com/RFEngineerNi/status/1049875220163698693

If you disagree with that just consider this: Alex Cora elected to go with starter Chris Sale to finish off Game 5 of the World Series.

Ouch to the idea that Craig Kimbrel is the best closer in the history of the game.

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