Craig Kimbrel eliminates former team to become eighth pitcher in history with 400 career saves

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By Webdesk



Craig Kimbrel is the newest member of the 400-save club. Friday night at Truist Park, the current Philadelphia Phillies closer and longtime Atlanta Braves closer pitched a scoreless ninth in Philadelphia’s victory over the Braves (PHI 6, ATL 4) to become the eighth member of the 400-save club.

Here’s the final of Kimbrel’s 400th save:

Kenley Jansen made his 400th career save earlier this season at Truit Park. Like Kimbrel, he is a former Brave.

Kimbrel is in his first season with the Phillies. He was originally drafted by the Braves in 2008 and broke into the big leagues with Atlanta in 2010. In 2014, Kimbrel passed John Smoltz to become the Braves all-time saves leader with 155. He finished his Braves career with 186 saves, his most with any team.

The Braves traded Kimbrel on Opening Day 2015. He spent 2010-14 with the Braves before moving on to the San Diego Padres (2015), Boston Red Sox (2016-18), Chicago Cubs (2019-21), Chicago White Sox (2021), Los Angeles Dodgers (2022), and now the Phillies. Kimbrel has recorded saves with seven different teams.

Here’s the all-time saves leaderboard:

  1. Mariano Rivera: 652
  2. Trevor Hoffman: 601
  3. Lee Smith: 478
  4. Francis Rodriguez: 437
  5. John Franco: 424
  6. Billy Wagner: 422
  7. Kenley Jansen: 401
  8. Craig Kimbrell: 400

The leaderboard has been skewed recently given the changes in bullpen roles and bullpen usage over the years. Rivera, Hoffman and Smith are all in the Hall of Fame and Wagner may soon join them. His support climbed to 68.1% this year, his eighth year on the ballot. Wagner has two more years to cross the 75% threshold required to enter the Hall of Fame.

Wagner making the Hall of Fame may help Kimbrel (and Jansen) end up in Cooperstown one day. Hall of Fame voters have become increasingly supportive of modern one-inning closers in recent years, and Kimbrel (and Jansen) is one of the best of the era. Kimbrel will have a viable Hall of Fame case when the time comes.

This season, Kimbrel, 34, is a perfect 6 for 6 in saves after starting the year in a more startup role. He has seven postseason saves in addition to his 400 regular season saves, and Kimbrel’s 14.4 strikeouts per nine innings is the highest strikeout percentage in history among pitchers with 700 career innings. Jansen is second with 12.9.

Behind Jansen and Kimbrel, the active saves leader is Aroldis Chapman at 317. These days, the 35-year-old Chapman is mostly a setup man with the Kansas City Royals. Edwin Díaz (205 saves at age 29) and Josh Hader (145 saves at age 29) are candidates to become the next members of the 400-save club.





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