Craig Kimbrel is on the move.
The Chicago White Sox agreed to trade their veteran reliever to the Los Angeles Dodgers in exchange for 34-year-old outfielder AJ Pollock.
Kimbrel now replaces Kenley Jansen as the Dodgers’ closer after the latter went east to join the defending champion Atlanta Braves on a one-year, $16 million contract.
Speaking of the Braves and Dodgers, there’s a little interesting fact about these two closers that an MLB analyst mentioned in a tweet.
Grant McAuley points out that Jansen and Kimbrel are now on opposite sides, as it was in Atlanta where Kimbrel made his debut, won the 2011 NL Rookie of the Year award, and spent five seasons before being traded away prior to the 2015 season.
Just like we all predicted in 2014:
Kenley Jansen, #Braves closer.
Craig Kimbrel, #Dodgers closer.
— Grant McAuley (@grantmcauley) April 1, 2022
Trading Places
It’s funny how these things work.
Kimbrel began his MLB career as a Dodger and Kimbrel started off with the Braves.
Now they’re on opposite ends.
It’s rare you see something like this unless it’s via trade, which in that case is obvious and totally normal, but it is weird to see these guys switch places almost.
Obviously, Kimbrel had stops in San Diego, Boston, and Chicago before heading to the Dodgers, so it isn’t a direct switching of places.
But it’s ironic that these two guys started with their respective teams and now find themselves with the other’s previous team as veterans.
Now we’ll see how they do in their new uniforms and their counterpart’s old ones.
It’ll be interesting if the Dodgers and Braves meet again in the NLCS.
It will be weird to see them on the opposite sides after having entrenched themselves with their former teams.
But it’s an interesting turn of events.
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