Craig Kimbrel

Fan & Media Sentiment

Craig Kimbrel's public perception sits at a B- right now — a grade that captures the uncomfortable tension between a decorated career and a narrative that has clearly moved on from celebrating it. The dominant media framing isn't about his nine All-Star selections; it's about his minor league stint, his status as the tenth franchise to take a chance on him, and the broader story of a once-elite closer who now gets absorbed into bullpen depth charts rather than anchoring them. That framing is especially stark when you consider his on-field production grades out at an A+ — which means the performance is there, but the public conversation around him has been so thoroughly recast that it barely registers. A recent eighth-inning implosion against Colorado only reinforced the skeptic's case, giving the "journeyman in decline" narrative exactly the kind of moment it needed to calcify. The Mets themselves are 14-23 and navigating a rocky early stretch, which means any bullpen vulnerability gets amplified — Kimbrel absorbs criticism in a context where the organization has limited margin for error. The B- sentiment grade is honest: it's not a disaster, but it reflects a baseball world that has firmly moved past viewing Kimbrel as anything resembling an impact arm, regardless of what the stat sheet says.