{"id":106233,"date":"2025-08-21T23:37:03","date_gmt":"2025-08-22T03:37:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/?p=106233"},"modified":"2025-08-21T23:37:03","modified_gmt":"2025-08-22T03:37:03","slug":"astros-sign-craig-kimbrel-major-league-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2025\/08\/21\/astros-sign-craig-kimbrel-major-league-deal\/","title":{"rendered":"Report: Astros Signing Veteran All-Star Reliever"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Houston Astros bullpen has struggled recently, especially with the shoulder capsule <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2025\/08\/18\/josh-hader-latest-injury-impact-astros\/\" target=\"_self\">injury<\/a> to All-Star closer <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/h\/haderjo01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-08-21_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Josh Hader<\/a>. But it got a boost on Thursday night, as the Astros are signing veteran reliever <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/k\/kimbrcr01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-08-21_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Craig Kimbrel<\/a>, who will join the big league team, according to ESPN&#8217;s Jeff Passan.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_101756\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-101756\" style=\"width: 503px\" 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=\"503\" height=\"335\" 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: 503px) 100vw, 503px\" \/><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<h2>Report: Astros Sign Craig Kimbrel<\/h2>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Veteran reliever Craig Kimbrel is signing with the Houston Astros, a source tells ESPN. He&#8217;ll be joining their big league team.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/JeffPassan\/status\/1958669227344503099?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">August 21, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h3><strong>Where Kimbrel Has Been<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>The 15-year veteran most recently played for the Texas Rangers\u2019 Triple-A team, the Round Rock Express, starting from June 12th. He last appeared on Aug. 20 and threw one scoreless inning. <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.mlb.com\/news\/craig-kimbrel-astros-contract\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Kimbrel<\/a> appeared in 24 games with Round Rock, where he put up a 3.86 ERA and 21 strikeouts in 21 innings.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>The nine-time All-Star\u2019s last stint in the major leagues was with the Atlanta Braves at the start of the season. Kimbrel played in the Braves&#8217; minor league system until Atlanta called him up on June 6. He played the same day and pitched one scoreless inning with one hit, but was designated for assignment the next day.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>The 37-year-old righty pitched 52 1\/3 innings for the Baltimore Orioles last year and had a 7-5 record with a 5.33 ERA. Kimbrel went 23-for-29 in saves with 73 strikeouts and a 1.357 WHIP.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h3>Kimbrel&#8217;s Career Retrospective<\/h3>\n<p>The Braves drafted Kimbrel in the third round back in 2008, and he went on to become one of the most accomplished relievers in MLB history with four Reliever of the Year awards. He also was the National League Rookie of the Year in 2011. Kimbrel has the fifth-most saves in major league history at 449 and was the closer for the 2018 World Series-winning Boston Red Sox.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>The Astros hope the veteran can add to their depth and bring some experience to the group, while being an effective relief option. Houston\u2019s pitching staff will aim to get the best out of Kimbrel, building on their history of turning pitchers around.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Main Photo Credit: Robert Edwards-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Houston Astros bullpen has struggled recently, especially with the shoulder capsule injury to All-Star closer Josh Hader. But it got a boost on Thursday night, as the Astros are signing veteran reliever Craig Kimbrel, who will join the big league team, according to ESPN&#8217;s Jeff Passan.\u00a0 Report: Astros Sign Craig Kimbrel Veteran reliever Craig [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5612,"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":"1","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[14,926,1071,35],"tags":[323,2182],"class_list":["post-106233","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-astros","category-milb","category-mlb","category-news","tag-craig-kimbrel","tag-josh-hader"],"modified_by":"Lewis Masella, Site Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106233","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\/5612"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=106233"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106233\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":106236,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106233\/revisions\/106236"}],"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=106233"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=106233"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=106233"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}