{"id":285452,"date":"2026-05-27T00:26:21","date_gmt":"2026-05-27T00:26:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/285452\/"},"modified":"2026-05-27T00:26:21","modified_gmt":"2026-05-27T00:26:21","slug":"tampa-bay-rays-sign-veteran-reliever-craig-kimbrel-to-shore-up-bullpen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/285452\/","title":{"rendered":"Tampa Bay Rays Sign Veteran Reliever Craig Kimbrel to Shore up Bullpen"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>TAMPA, Fla. (AP) \u2014 The <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/tampa-bay-rays\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Tampa Bay Rays<\/a> signed right-handed reliever Craig Kimbrel to a major league contract on Tuesday to shore up their bullpen.<\/p>\n<p>The Rays placed right-hander Jesse Scholtens on the 15-day injured list with a right wrist strain to make room for Kimbrel on the active roster.<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/new-york-mets\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">New York Mets<\/a> designated Kimbrel for assignment on Friday after the nine-time All-Star allowed 10 runs over 15 innings in 14 appearances. He signed a free agent contract with the team in January.<\/p>\n<p>The 37-year-old Kimbrel has 440 saves with 10 teams in his 17-year career. He won a World Series with Boston in 2018 and was the 2011 NL rookie of the year.<\/p>\n<p>The Rays have the AL&#8217;s best record at 34-17, but their bullpen&#8217;s ERA of 4.40 is 21st in the majors.<\/p>\n<p>Copyright 2026 The\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.ap.org\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Associated Press<\/a>. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.<\/p>\n<p>Photos You Should See \u2013 April 2026<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/1779841581_287_april-28-pyss-w01.jpg\" alt=\"Dancers rehearse before an audition for the Radio City Rockettes at Radio City Music Hall in New York, on Wednesday, April 22, 2026. (AP Photo\/Yuki Iwamura)\" class=\"Image__PictureImage-sc-412cjc-1 bBgODV Image-sc-412cjc-2 SlideshowEmbed__Picture-fkpjfn-0 kQDDcT bUlaJL\"\/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TAMPA, Fla. (AP) \u2014 The Tampa Bay Rays signed right-handed reliever Craig Kimbrel to a major league contract&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":285453,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[2205,3816,88592,110,1237,135,137,136],"class_list":["post-285452","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-associated-press","tag-baseball","tag-collections-sports","tag-sports","tag-sports-news","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285452","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=285452"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285452\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/285453"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=285452"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=285452"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=285452"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}