PORT ST. LUCIE — The most accomplished pitcher in Mets camp (by a lot) has neither a major league contract nor a certain major league job.
What Craig Kimbrel continues to have, a few months shy of his 38th birthday and a few years removed from his perhaps Cooperstown-touched prime, is a passion to pitch and faith that he can excel.
“If you feel like you still got it in you and you still got the drive to do it, I think I might have plenty of years to sit around at home and watch the game on TV,” Kimbrel said. “I still feel I have the ability to be successful and not just get by. I feel like I can still play this game at the highest level. It’s what keeps me here. To a fault, sometimes I’m a little hard-headed, but I don’t think I would have been able to do the things in this game that I have if I didn’t have that mindset. And so I’m here.”
He is present wearing his familiar No. 46, but the reliever with the fifth-most saves ever now finds himself in the unfamiliar position of having to earn a job ($2.5 million in the majors). And there is a path.
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