Until just over a week ago, Craig Kimbrel doubted a long-term deal with the Braves was possible. And until the team made three other moves over the past couple of weeks, securing some of its up-and-coming stars to multi-year extensions, the game’s most dominant closer wasn’t sure if he wanted to be locked in for another four or five years.
But they did, and now he is.
Kimbrel signed a four-year, $42 million contract extension with a fifth-year option Sunday, a day before he was scheduled to have an arbitration hearing that could have made such a deal highly unlikely. The contract could be worth more than $59 million including a $13 million option and incentives for All-Star appearances and such.
“I’m very excited,” said Kimbrel, whose deal is the largest ever for a closer not yet eligible for free agency. “If I didn’t want to be here, this wouldn’t be going on. I can’t be any happier. I can see what we’re doing as an organization and as a ballclub. We’re going out to win. And not just right now; we’re planning on winning for a long time.
“I want to be closing out division titles and (league) championships and World Series. We have the team to do it.”
So much for the notion that the Braves wouldn’t spend to retain top young talent: In the past two weeks, they’ve signed four of their drafted-and-developed players to extensions worth about $223 million guaranteed, and nearly $250 million including options and incentives.
Kimbrel’s deal came two days after the Braves gave a six-year, $32.4 million contract to pitcher Julio Teheran. On Feb. 4, they signed Freddie Freeman to a franchise-record eight-year, $135 million extension, and Jason Heyward to a two-year, $13.3 million deal.
Kimbrel said those other multi-year deals were a “very big” part of his desire to sign long-term.
“I want to stay here with a group of guys that I came up with and am comfortable with,” he said. “In the game of baseball, it’s the team you’re on, the guys you’re surrounded by. We have an awesome core here. I feel like this is a core that can work for a long time.”
Kimbrel gets a $1 million signing bonus, a $7 million salary this season, then $9 million in 2015, $11 million in 2016, and $13 million in 2017. There’s a $1 million buyout on the option in 2018.
None of the other deals came as a surprise the way Kimbrel’s contract did. It had been widely assumed the Braves and their three-time All-Star strikeout machine were too far apart financially to bridge the gap for a long-term agreement.
Until recently, Kimbrel didn’t think a deal would get done. But his agent, David Meter, called Wren a week ago, the sides hammered out an agreement by Friday night, and Kimbrel passed a physical on Saturday.
“When you have the best closer in the game, you’re always hopeful that you can work something out,” Wren said. “We’re thrilled that Craig’s going to be here for at least the next four years, and we’re pretty confident that it’s going to be five.”
Wren has described a big plan to retain the team’s core players together for years to come, and of the new spending being tied to increased revenues from a planned new Cobb County ballpark beginning in 2017.
Getting cost control over their elite closer was big for the Braves, who avoided an arbitration case that could have potentially given Kimbrel a $9 million salary and $14 million or more in 2015 in his second year of arbitration. At those prices, he might’ve become too expensive for the Braves.
The Alabama native has been baseball’s dominant reliever since becoming a closer. He had a 1.21 ERA with 98 strikeouts in 67 innings while tying for the major league saves lead with 50 in 2013.
“He’s special,” Wren said. “Just look at what he’s contributed to the team in his first three years in the big leagues. I mean, that’s not only special, it’s historic. And to have him under contract through age 30, it’s his prime, and I’m not going to limit it to five years — we hope it’s his whole career.”
Kimbrel has 138 saves in his first three seasons as closer and a 1.39 ERA with 381 strikeouts in 227-1/3 career innings. He’s struck out a staggering 43 percent of all batters he’s faced.
