Will Craig Kimbrel change or alter his pre-pitch routine this season?

On his way to recording 417 saves – the eighth-most in MLB history – with a chance this year to move to fourth on the list, new O’s closer Craig Kimbrel has featured a most unusual set-up out of the stretch position.

Bent over at the waist, his right arm dangles out to the right and there is a bit of a stare-down before each pitch. When Kimbrel talked to O’s reporters early last month, he discussed how he got to that pre-pitch routine, also hinting it could change at times next season.

“It’s pretty simple,” Kimbrel said on an O’s video call with media. “There was never really much behind it. I’ve always leaned over, but my arm for a long time was behind my back. In growing up and going from being a young kid playing the game to an older man playing the game, my arm just wasn’t going behind my back anymore. So, I started to let it hang and it kind of transformed into something that I would use to lock in. To say, ‘OK, It’s time to go.’ The fun, the happy, the joking, the loving Craig we get for most of the day, it’s time for him to get serious and to focus. It was a tool I was able to use over the years to really lock in pitch-to-pitch.

“You know I have a couple of ideas this year to try to work with that with the new rules of the game – the pitch clock and windup and things. The game is changing, so I need to change a little bit. Kind of excited this spring to try and make that work. The game is forever changing and if we don’t keep up with that, we’ll be left behind. It’s something I’ve done for a long, long time and something I will continue to do, but I think this year we might see something a little quicker and a little better.”

It will be interesting to see how that plays out. The biggest concern for the team will be, of course, not how he looks in throwing the ball but what happens after he lets it go.

Kimbrel, who will be 36 on May 28, went 8-6 with a 3.26 ERA in 2023 with Philadelphia. His 69 innings were his most since the 2017 season and he produced a 1.043 WHIP with a 3.7 walk rate and 12.3 K rate.

Kimbrel struggled early last year and then got it going. Over his first 14 games he went 1-1 with an 8.25 ERA and .922 OPS against. And then he went 7-5, with 20 saves, a 2.21 ERA, .162 average against and .538 OPS over his final 57 games beginning May 9.

In the playoffs, he pitched three scoreless innings with two saves in the first two rounds as the Phillies advanced. He then gave up four runs in three innings in the NL Championship Series, taking two losses, as Arizona upset Philly.

“The Phillies signed me and gave me the opportunity to work back into the role I want to be in,” Kimbrel said of his ’23 season. “The conversation was not, ‘You’re coming here to be the closer, it’s you’re coming here with that opportunity.’ With the team we had I was able to stay healthy for all of last year. I threw in more games than I had in over a decade. I was able to do a lot of things on and off the field to be helpful. The same things I plan to do in Baltimore.

“I had a lot of milestones hit and things that you dream of like getting to close out the All-Star game. Man, that was an experience. To do that with my family there. Such a cool year. I made memories with the group of guys that were there – they were great. When I come to a team, I come in ready to love everybody. To say, ‘I’m here, I’m going to love everybody and we’re going to have fun.

“That group in Philly – we had a lot of fun. Great experience for me and my family. It was unfortunate how it ended, it was terrible. You always want to be on the winning side of it, but this is not the case. I’ve been knocked in the face a few times in my career but you get up and keep on going. You’re better for it. As long as I’ve played this game, my goal is to help carry a team through the playoffs and I believe that will happen and I hope it’s this year for the Baltimore Orioles.”

Of the Orioles' 101 wins last season, 49 ended with a save as the O’s ranked fifth-most in the majors in team saves. How Kimbrel does replacing All-Star closer Felix Bautista will have to say about the O’s 2024 season.

The chance is there for a real good Baltimore ‘pen with the likes of Yennier Cano, Danny Coulombe and Cionel Perez joined by a healthy Dillon Tate and maybe even getting help from DL Hall and/or Tyler Wells. But unlike last year for Kimbrel, he’s the set closer as the year begins.   

No matter how he looks before he delivers the pitch.