MLB · P · Kansas City Royals
Craig Kimbrel
B/T R/R · 6' 0" · 215 lb · born Huntsville, AL, USA · age 38 · draft 2008 rd 3 · played P 81 · MLB debut 2010-05-07
Last 14 days (through 2026-09-03): 4 G · 4.0 IP · 0.00 ERA · 3 SO · 0.50 WHIP
170 batters faced scored this season His season card →
Scout’s note
Craig Kimbrel is a 38-year-old right-hander from Huntsville, Alabama, drafted in the third round in 2008, with 1,314 strikeouts in 884 career appearances. Three strikeouts in three games the last two weeks.
Note written · FVR scout (GLM-5.2)
What he’s paid
ArbitrationA market fact, not an engine read: what a club decided about him, on the season before this one. Figures from Cot’s, as of .
- 2026 salary
- $0.66M
- Tax hit
- $0.66M
- Service time
- 14 yr 31 d
- Options left
- 2 / 3
The deal 1 year $2.5M (2026)
On the sheet: 1 y/$2.5M (26) · agent SportsMeter
After this season, as the sheet has it
| Season | 2027 |
|---|---|
| Cash | Free agent |
| Tax hit | — |
Regime flagged: the sheet's out-year codes read arbitration and 14.031 reads free_agency. Kept the sheet's; Super Two and optional assignments move this line and the service boundary cannot see them.
Cash and the tax hit are two different rulebooks and are never subtracted from one another — see the payroll board for his club, Kansas City Royals.
A second set of books
The same contract, read by MLB Spreadsheets (Ethan Hullihen), as of . We keep two sources on this because one source cannot check itself.
- Tax AAV
- $1.60M
- Guaranteed
- $1.60M
- Term
- 1 yr
What the sheet prices each season at
| Season | 2026 |
|---|---|
| Salary | $1.6M |
A base salary under his own reading, and never subtracted from the cash figure above: a signing bonus lands in one and not the other, so the two disagree on most men without either being wrong. And the sheet does not mark which future seasons are GUARANTEED — a club option and a projected arbitration award are both just a number here, so read past the end of the deal as his forecast rather than as money owed.
The two sources disagree
MLB Spreadsheets has this deal at 1 yr, $1,600,000 (); Cot’s has it at 1 yr, $2,500,000 (). They are $900,000 apart on the same number of years.
We do not adjudicate. Both readings are cited and dated, and this is 19 of the 848 deals we could compare — the other 829 agree to the dollar.
The tax AAV above is his number under the CBA’s own rulebook, not the average we work out from Cot’s total. On a contract with deferred money the two come apart on purpose — and neither is subtracted from the other.
Collect Craig Kimbrel
If the signal is right, the cardboard usually finds out later. Current listings:
Craig Kimbrel cards on eBay →Paid link — as an eBay Partner, FVR earns from qualifying purchases.
Not financial advice. We take positions only after publication — never before. Misses stay on the record.
Umpire favor
-0.8 net runs over 22 graded games — the zone cost the umpire more than it gave, on balance.
The line
Bio & season lines: MLB StatsAPI · refreshed nightly · abbreviations →