{"id":101733,"date":"2025-06-07T19:33:11","date_gmt":"2025-06-07T23:33:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/?p=101733"},"modified":"2025-06-07T19:33:11","modified_gmt":"2025-06-07T23:33:11","slug":"braves-dfa-craig-kimbrel-after-one-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2025\/06\/07\/braves-dfa-craig-kimbrel-after-one-game\/","title":{"rendered":"Craig Kimbrel Designated for Assignment by Braves After Just One Appearance"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/k\/kimbrcr01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-06-07_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Craig Kimbrel<\/a>\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2025\/06\/05\/craig-kimbrel-promoted-braves\/\" target=\"_self\">return to the Atlanta Braves<\/a> didn\u2019t last long. After throwing one scoreless inning for the club in Friday\u2019s extra-innings loss to the San Francisco Giants, Atlanta designated the righty for assignment on Saturday. In a corresponding move, left-hander <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/c\/coxau01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-06-07_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Austin Cox<\/a> was recalled.<\/p>\n<p>Kimbrel signed a minor league deal with Atlanta during spring training and made his first appearance with the team in a decade in Friday\u2019s series opener against the Giants. The veteran came back already a certified Braves legend. From 2010-14, Kimbrel recorded 186 saves for Atlanta, a franchise record.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">The <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Braves?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#Braves<\/a> today recalled LHP Austin Cox to Atlanta and designated RHP Craig Kimbrel for assignment.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Atlanta Braves (@Braves) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Braves\/status\/1931378156209840336?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">June 7, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h2>Craig Kimbrel DFA by Braves After One Game<\/h2>\n<h3>Kimbrel\u2019s Performance vs. Giants<\/h3>\n<p>The righty found success on the mound Friday but was unable to live up to his former dominance. The 37-year-old Kimbrel took the mound in the seventh inning and allowed a single and a walk. His caught stealing and pickoff served as highlights of his sole inning on the mound, and he ended the seventh with a strikeout.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_101756\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-101756\" style=\"width: 480px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-101756\" src=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2025\/06\/USATSI_26396486_168400885_lowres-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"480\" height=\"320\" srcset=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2025\/06\/USATSI_26396486_168400885_lowres-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2025\/06\/USATSI_26396486_168400885_lowres-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2025\/06\/USATSI_26396486_168400885_lowres-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2025\/06\/USATSI_26396486_168400885_lowres-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2025\/06\/USATSI_26396486_168400885_lowres-2048x1366.jpg 2048w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2025\/06\/USATSI_26396486_168400885_lowres-600x400.jpg 600w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2025\/06\/USATSI_26396486_168400885_lowres-1200x800.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 480px) 100vw, 480px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-101756\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jun 6, 2025; San Francisco, California, USA; Atlanta Braves pitcher Craig Kimbrel (46) looks at the catcher against the San Francisco Giants during the seventh inning at Oracle Park. Mandatory Credit: Robert Edwards-Imagn Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>However, Kimbrel\u2019s velocity demonstrated that his best days may be behind him. While he once threw 97-98 mph fastballs and struck out nearly 40% of batters faced, he utilized a sinker on Friday, which averaged 91.7 mph and maxed out at 92.8 mph.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cHe kind of lucked out of it a little bit,\u201d Braves manager <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/s\/snitkbr99.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-06-07_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Brian Snitker<\/a> said of Kimbrel\u2019s appearance. \u201cI\u2019m glad he got through it. It was good to get him out there for the first time.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<h3>Atlanta\u2019s Bullpen Shortcomings<\/h3>\n<p>The Braves fell 5-4 to the Giants in 10 innings on Friday. Atlanta has been plagued with a lack of bullpen depth as of late, with <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2025\/04\/24\/daysbel-hernandez-pitching-well\/\" target=\"_self\">Daysbel Hern\u00e1ndez<\/a> on the IL with right forearm inflammation and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/i\/iglesra01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-06-07_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Raisel Iglesias<\/a> continuing to struggle, <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2025\/06\/05\/atlanta-braves-pitching-woes-drop-fifth-straight-series\/\" target=\"_self\">allowing three runs<\/a> in 2\/3 of an inning to blow the Braves\u2019 lead over the Arizona Diamondbacks on Thursday.<\/p>\n<p>Despite these shortcomings in the pitching staff, Snitker has determined that Craig Kimbrel is not the answer, resulting in a DFA. Kimbrel established himself as a franchise legend earlier in his career, but no longer has the mechanics to aid a struggling Braves pitching staff.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Photo Credit: \u00a9 Robert Edwards-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Craig Kimbrel\u2019s return to the Atlanta Braves didn\u2019t last long. After throwing one scoreless inning for the club in Friday\u2019s extra-innings loss to the San Francisco Giants, Atlanta designated the righty for assignment on Saturday. In a corresponding move, left-hander Austin Cox was recalled. Kimbrel signed a minor league deal with Atlanta during spring training [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4445,"featured_media":101755,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[21,1071,35],"tags":[68,1621,323,178],"class_list":["post-101733","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-braves","category-mlb","category-news","tag-baseball","tag-bullpen","tag-craig-kimbrel","tag-nl-east"],"modified_by":"Lewis Masella, Site Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101733","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4445"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=101733"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101733\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":101757,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101733\/revisions\/101757"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/101755"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=101733"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=101733"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=101733"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}