Craig Kimbrel is about to play for team number 12. Jon Heyman broke the news Sunday night that the veteran right-hander is signing a major-league deal with the Royals, the latest stop in a career that's officially become a tour of the sport.
Craig Kimbrel is signing with Royals. MLB deal.
MLB Trade Rumors followed up with the confirmation and the number that makes this move genuinely wild: Kansas City is Kimbrel's 12th MLB team, and somehow his third of 2026 alone. He started the year with the Mets, got DFA'd in May, landed with the Rays, got DFA'd again last weekend, cleared waivers, and now he's a Royal.
There's a reason a guy with 440 career saves — 5th all-time — keeps getting passed around like this. Kimbrel is 38 and his stuff has clearly slipped. He's carrying a 4.81 ERA over 33 2/3 innings between the Mets and Rays this season, with the lowest strikeout rate of his career at 22.2% and an 11.1% walk rate that's way too high for a guy who used to blow hitters away. The financials here tell the story too: the Mets are still on the hook for most of his $2.5MM salary this year, meaning Tampa Bay and now Kansas City are only paying him prorated minimum. This is about as low-risk as a big-league signing gets.
But low-risk is exactly the point for a Royals bullpen that's been searching for answers down the stretch. Kansas City doesn't need vintage 2011-2013 Kimbrel — the guy who used to be nearly unhittable in Atlanta — they just need innings and a name that's been in high-leverage spots before. If he can find even a fraction of his old form, it's a nice bonus for a bullpen mix that could use the depth.
Worth remembering: this isn't Kimbrel's first go-round of getting cut loose and picked back up in the same season. It's become something of a pattern the last few years as his velocity has dipped — teams keep betting a reliever with his track record and 9 All-Star selections has one more useful stretch left in the tank. The Royals are the latest to place that bet, and they're doing it for pocket change.