With all the noise these days about doctored baseballs, Chicago Cubs reliever Craig Kimbrel made a preemptive move during a recent game at Wrigley Field.
Kimbrel met with umpire Joe West to discuss his Cubs cap, which had a noticeable white spot on the middle of the brim from Kimbrel touching it after using the rosin bag. West had just taken the cap of St. Louis Cardinals reliever Giovanny Gallegos during a May 26 game against the Chicago White Sox, leading to an ejection of Cardinals manager Mike Shildt and a full-metal rant by Shildt, who called the use of sticky substances “baseball’s dirty little secret.”
In order to avoid a similar occurrence, or just to be on the safe side, Kimbrel figured it probably was best to find out if his cap passed the Joe West eye test.
“Why not have a conversation with the man himself?” Kimbrel said. “It was a good one. And I’ll leave it at that.”
There was no fuss when Kimbrel came into the game later with a spot-free cap, and no one accused him of anything. But when the media spotted the Kimbrel-West conversation, Cubs manager David Ross went into operation shutdown.
Nothing to see here, folks. Move along.
“I was aware of the conversation,” Ross said afterward. “He and Joe worked that out. I’ll keep it in house.”
The next day Ross said conversations between players and umpires are frequent, again downplaying the meeting.
Kimbrel’s caps have had a spot on them for years, drawing comments on Twitter when he was dominating with the Atlanta Braves in 2014. After New York Mets fans complained during a game about the discoloration, former Mets manager Terry Collins said: “He’s had the same hat for four years. It’s not pine tar. It’s rosin.”
Kimbrel also had the spot when he was struggling with the Cubs in 2019 and ’20, but no one said anything about it then.
Still, the fact Kimbrel felt obligated to discuss his cap with West shows where we are in baseball in the spin-rate summer of 2021. Everyone’s watching, looking at numbers and speculating — whether they have evidence or not.
Major League Baseball is cracking down on pitchers applying illegal substances to balls for better grips, which increases spin rates and makes balls harder to hit. But so far only four minor-league pitchers have been suspended, according to the Associated Press, which noted that major-league suspensions are subject to bargaining with the players association, while minor-leaguers have no union.
Among the four are two White Sox prospects: Marcus Evey of Class A Kannapolis and Sal Biasi of Class A Winston-Salem, both of whom received 10-game suspensions.
Some outspoken hitters believe MLB has to start dealing with the issue more severely. After the Gallegos incident, Minnesota Twins third baseman Josh Donaldson tweeted: “Crazy idea here but I’m going to throw it out there. Stop cheating!!”
Donaldson said during a video conference with media that doctoring balls with illegal substances is “going to be the next steroids of baseball ordeal.”
“Because it is cheating and it is performance-enhancing,” Donaldson said. “The only way they get it through and to get it out of the game is if they get checked every half-inning. If a new pitcher comes out, they get checked immediately by the umpire. Once they start doing that, it’ll be gone and you’re going to start seeing offense come back into the game.”
Donaldson later told the Athletic: “Is it coincidence that Gerrit Cole’s spin-rate numbers went down (in a game Thursday) after four minor-leaguers got suspended for 10 games? Is that possible? I don’t know. Maybe. At the same time, with this situation, they’ve let guys do it.”
Kimbrel doesn’t concern himself with what’s being said, and he agreed there needs to be a discussion, albeit one that’s not in headlines.
“I’m not worried about it,” he said. “I definitely think that there needs to be a discussion between the players and the pitchers and the umpires and get it figured out and go from there. I think it needs to be something internal instead of it being so public and (players talking) about it, whatever it is. I think it will be.”
MLB is monitoring the situation but has yet to issue any penalties.
“If they are confiscating stuff and doing nothing, it might be because they’re not finding anything,” Kimbrel said.
Meanwhile, the Cubs closer is having a rebound season after a rough start with the team in 2019 and then losing the closer role to Jeremy Jeffress a few weeks into the shortened 2020 season.
“I didn’t think it was very tough at the time,” Kimbrel said. “I look in the mirror. I knew how I was pitching and knew the whole time I was in the middle of it. What was best for the team was to be put in the (middle relief) role that I was in, throwing in the seventh and eighth inning when I needed to and getting back to being the dominant pitcher I know I can be.
“I was able to get through that, and here we are this year, back closing games.”
Kimbrel said he’s “very confident” now and knows he was his own worst enemy at times the last two seasons.
“I look back at some of my not-so-good outings and a lot of times it’s just not being aggressive and throwing the pitch to a spot like I want to,” he said. “A lot of time it narrows down to not being afraid to make a pitch.”
Whether Kimbrel sticks with the Cubs the rest of the season depends on whether they remain in contention by the July 31 trade deadline. He would be one of their more valuable trade chips because of his resume and return to dominance this year.
“I don’t think we can be (concerned),” he said. “This being a business and a lot of us guys being in the game as long as we have, we understand how the business works.
“Bottom line is that if we go out and win, we put ourselves in a good position, we don’t have anything else to worry about.”
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