Should the Red Sox sign Craig Kimbrel?

Remember a few years ago (well, a lot of years ago at this point) when there was this theory that Elvis didn't die of a drug overdose in the seventies. That he was still alive, and living in hiding. It was a weird little theory that people had some fun with for a while. Around that time I was in a bookstore, and saw a book titled “Is Elvis Alive?”. I went to check it hoping for the off chance that it was a book with 200 blank pages following a page that simply said “No, you idiot!”

I feel that way with this post. I wanted to address the subject by simply having a post that said “no”. But, what kind of blogger would I be if I did that?

Besides, it's not entirely true. The Red Sox do need another competent reliever, and Kimbrel is certainly one of those. In fact, in the list of the top four or five free agent pitchers, he's head and shoulders better than everyone else. So, they probably should, in fact, sign him.

So, what this post should really say is “not at that price.”

Because his skill set is not something that you should pay a lot of money for. The ability to get three outs without giving up three runs is not exactly setting the bar particularly high. I mean, pitching three outs and giving up even one run gets you a 9.00 ERA. Pretty much every pitcher in baseball has an ERA better than that. So, every pitcher in baseball should be able to pitch an inning while “saving” a three run lead. It's not exactly something that is worth shelling out the big bucks. (and it's sure as hell not a skill that should get you elected to the Hall of Fame, but that's another story for another day)

Now, is it nice to have a guy who comes in and strikes out the first three batters he faces, like Kimbrel sometimes does? Sure. As a fan, that's more fun. It's also easier to watch than a guy whose inning goes single-fielders choice-fly ball-walk-HBP-groundout. But they both get the job done.

So I’m not going to pay Kimbrel $17 million per year when Joe Kelly would have only cost $8 million per. You can get a couple good arms for the money Kimbrel is apparently asking for. You can get about a dozen arms that can do the job for that sort of money.

So, unless he drops to one of those prove-it one year deals, I'm a pass. I'll work with one of the other options that will do the job.

And spend my money elsewhere.