McAdam: Can more from Craig Kimbrel fix the Red Sox bullpen issues?

Over the last few postseasons, managers have come to utilize their bullpens in unconventional ways. Starters now routinely pitch in relief. Some relievers are asked to pitch multiple innings mid-game. And closers are limited to the ninth inning.

As the Red Sox prepare for the American League Division Series, they have one of the game's most accomplished and intimidating closers in Craig Kimbrel. While Kimbrel didn't quite match the level to which he performed in 2017 this season, he was still, arguably, the third-best closer in the American League behind only Seattle's Edwin Diaz and Oakland's Blake Treinen.

It's not Kimbrel that Red Sox fans worry about, of course -- it's the other relievers the team uses to get to Kimbrel in the ninth inning.



Matt Barnes and Ryan Brasier performed well in high-leverage spots, but have combined for 1.2 innings of postseason experience, leaving the eighth inning an area of uncertainty.

One solution could be to go to Kimbrel earlier than normal, bringing him in to get one or two outs in the eighth, then staying with him for the ninth, per usual.

"We'll see,'' said a smiling Alex Cora when asked about using Kimbrel in such a way earlier this week.

Perhaps Cora was merely being coy about his intentions. Or perhaps the Sox don't wish to change things this late in the season.

But two problems exist under this scenario. First, in admittedly limited opportunities, Kimbrel hasn't been very good in this role. And two, and perhaps more ominous is the question of whether Kimbrel wants to serve in that capacity.

At the winter meetings in Orlando last December, Cora first raised the possibility of utilizing Kimbrel in some non-traditional, high-leverage situations. A month later, appearing at the team's winter barnstorming event at Crossroads, Kimbrel seemed to express his limited interest in pitching in other than save situations.

The plan had been to integrate Kimbrel into the role during spring training to test his suitability, but the pitcher's infant daughter's medical condition -- she needed open-heart surgery, resulting in Kimbrel spending most of March in the Boston area -- understandably changed those plans.

Then, because the Sox were more intent on building up Kimbrel's arm strength in the early weeks of the season, the plan never got any regular season traction. In early September, with the postseason on the horizon, Cora voiced a willingness to re-examine the issue before the season ended, as a test for the playoffs.

That, too, never happened, with Cora explaining on the final weekend that the right opportunity never presented itself.

That seemed a dubious explanation, however, given that the Red Sox clinched a playoff spot with weeks to go and had plenty of time to experiment as they saw fit. Instead, Kimbrel's usage was limited to the ninth.

The teams' reluctance to test the plan may be merely a cover for Kimbrel's reluctance to deviate from his normal role. Kimbrel is eligible for free agency at the end of the season and he may have stated a preference to be used more traditionally, so as to not compromise his value on the marketplace. (Talent evaluators and executives no longer hold save totals in the same regard and have come to value and reward effective late-inning relievers like Andrew Miller who seldom pitch the ninth, but sometimes, players seem resistant to change).

Then, there's the matter of Kimbrel's effectiveness.

First, Kimbrel's effectiveness decreases the more pitches he throws in an appearance. His OPS in games in which he throws more than 25 pitches is .518, compared to .483 when he throws 25 or fewer.

Also, his strikeout-to-walk ratio in the eighth is down significantly in the eighth inning (3.15), compared to the ninth (4.65), with his OPS against (.523 in the eighth inning) showing a similar spike, in comparison to his work in the ninth (.478).

Closers are notoriously wedded to routine, and it may be that, even in the postseason when usage rules are frequently tossed aside, Kimbrel isn't is in his comfort zone pitching in any situation other than traditional save opportunities.

In that case, the Red Sox have to determine whether asking Kimbrel to perform in a role in which he isn't completely comfortable is a lesser risk than turning to relievers who don't have near his track record in the late inning.