The Los Angeles Dodgers postseason roster for the National League Division Series will include 13 pitchers, and among them could be Craig Kimbrel despite getting demoted from his closer role during the final month of the regular season.
As the Dodgers are going through NLDS workouts and intrasquad games at Dodger Stadium over the weekend, the evaluation for final roster spots continues. Hanser Alberto and Miguel Vargas are believed to be competing for a bench role, and Dustin May and Blake Treinen are attempting to prove they’re healthy enough to contribute.
May appears to have a leg-up on Treinen in that regard as he’s recovered from lower back tightness.
Meanwhile, whether or not Kimbrel will be on the Dodgers postseason roster appears to be loosely tied to health with other pitchers and overall bullpen composition.
“I don’t know,” answered president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman when asked if Kimbrel will be on the Dodgers postseason roster for the NLDS.
“We’re still meeting and talking through the composition of our position-player group, of our pitching staff. I think as we learn more from some of our players in terms of health and where they’re at, I think we’ll have a lot more information to be able to figure out exactly what we’re going to do.”
After being mired in inconsistency throughout the year, Kimbrel was removed from the Dodgers closer role on Sept. 23. He expressed an understanding with manager Dave Roberts’ decision and vowed to embrace in any role asked of him.
That wound up largely coming in low-leverage situations and against a string of right-handed batters.
Kimbrel tossed 5.2 scoreless innings and held opponents to a .067/.300/.067 batting line over six appearances after being taken out of the closer role. Although Kimbrel allowed just one hit during that span, he did walk five batters and took a loss when one of those brought in the game-winning run in extra innings against the San Diego Padres.
Craig Kimbrel believes he can contribute on Dodgers postseason roster
Even if no longer pitching as a closer, Kimbrel is confident in being able to contribute for the Dodgers in the playoffs. The veteran also believes his days of converting save opportunities have not come to an end.
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