Despite a bloated 1.61 ERA, his worst mark since his putrid 2011 campaign, in which he posted a 2.10 mark, Craig Kimbrel was announced as the first winner of the Trevor Hoffman Award, which is given to the NL's top relief pitcher.
.Royals">@Royals closer Greg Holland wins Mariano Rivera Award; Braves">@Braves closer @kimbrel46 receives Trevor Hoffman Award. pic.twitter.com/GYnSX5ntjG
— MLB (@MLB) October 22, 2014
As you can see in the above photo, Kimbrel was in Kansas City and received the award from commissioner-to-be Rob Manfred before Game 2 of the World Series.
I think we're all guilty at times (I know I am) of taking for granted just how incredibly good Craig Kimbrel is. Let's just put it this way: Kimbrel recorded 47 saves in 51 tries, and put up 2.2 fWAR in a little over 60 innings' worth of work this year. This is the same amount of fWAR that Marlins pitcher Henderson Alvarez earned, who pitched 187 innings and posted a 2.65 ERA.
Kimbrel had the third-best reliever ERA in the league, behind the Padres' Joaquin Benoit and the Nationals' Drew Storen, and had the second-best reliever FIP at 1.83, behind Aroldis Chapman.
The craziest part of all of this is that this season was arguably Kimbrel's worst, despite all of the previous accomplishments and a strikeout rate of 38.9%. He did struggle at times this season with command and control, and walked a higher percentage of batters than he had in previous years. When you're Craig Kimbrel, though, there's some room for error, and his absurdly dominant fastball that averages a hair over 97 mph and curveball that looks like this give him some wiggle room.
I don't know how much longer Kimbrel's arm will hold up, or how much longer he'll be a Brave, so enjoy it while you can. He's a joy to watch throw baseballs, and is a deserving recipient of the award. Congrats, Craig.