{"id":285481,"date":"2026-05-27T00:53:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-27T00:53:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/285481\/"},"modified":"2026-05-27T00:53:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-27T00:53:09","slug":"tampa-bay-rays-sign-veteran-reliever-craig-kimbrel-to-shore-up-bullpen-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/285481\/","title":{"rendered":"Tampa Bay Rays sign veteran reliever Craig Kimbrel to shore up bullpen"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>TAMPA, Fla. \u2014 The <a class=\"link \" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/tampa-bay-rays\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Tampa Bay Rays;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;Tampa Bay Rays&quot;}\">Tampa Bay Rays<\/a> signed right-handed reliever <a class=\"link \" href=\"https:\/\/sports.yahoo.com\/mlb\/players\/8622\/\" data-i13n=\"sec:content-canvas;subsec:anchor_text;elm:context_link\" data-ylk=\"slk:Craig Kimbrel;sec:content-canvas;subsec:anchor_text;elm:context_link;itc:0\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;Craig Kimbrel&quot;,&quot;ySubModuleName&quot;:&quot;anchor_text&quot;,&quot;yHasCommerce&quot;:false}\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Craig Kimbrel<\/a> to a major league contract on Tuesday to shore up their bullpen.<\/p>\n<p>The Rays placed right-hander <a class=\"link \" href=\"https:\/\/sports.yahoo.com\/mlb\/players\/60630\/\" data-i13n=\"sec:content-canvas;subsec:anchor_text;elm:context_link\" data-ylk=\"slk:Jesse Scholtens;sec:content-canvas;subsec:anchor_text;elm:context_link;itc:0\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;Jesse Scholtens&quot;,&quot;ySubModuleName&quot;:&quot;anchor_text&quot;,&quot;yHasCommerce&quot;:false}\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Jesse Scholtens<\/a> on the 15-day injured list with a right wrist strain to make room for Kimbrel on the active roster.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>The <a class=\"link \" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/new-york-mets\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:New York Mets;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;New York Mets&quot;}\">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 <a class=\"link \" href=\"https:\/\/sports.yahoo.com\/mlb\/teams\/boston\/\" data-i13n=\"sec:content-canvas;subsec:anchor_text;elm:context_link\" data-ylk=\"slk:Boston;sec:content-canvas;subsec:anchor_text;elm:context_link;itc:0\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;Boston&quot;,&quot;ySubModuleName&quot;:&quot;anchor_text&quot;,&quot;yHasCommerce&quot;:false}\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Boston<\/a> in 2018 and was the 2011 NL rookie of the year.<\/p>\n<p>The Rays have the AL\u2019s best record at 34-17, but their bullpen\u2019s ERA of 4.40 is 21st in the majors.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TAMPA, Fla. \u2014 The Tampa Bay Rays signed right-handed reliever Craig Kimbrel to a major league contract on&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":285482,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[6647,77015,108685,12193,135,3815,137,136,121115],"class_list":["post-285481","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-boston","tag-craig-kimbrel","tag-jesse-scholtens","tag-new-york-mets","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-bay-rays","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news","tag-wrist-strain"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285481","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=285481"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285481\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/285482"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=285481"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=285481"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=285481"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}