If only Frank Wren could go back in time and direct the managers in the Atlanta Braves' farm system to pitch Craig Kimbrel in more multiple-inning increments, maybe there wouldn't be so much discussion of how the Boston Red Sox are choosing to deploy their closer this season.
Then again, there's really nothing conventional about the way Kimbrel has been used, now or in the past.
Wren was the Braves' general manager when they drafted Kimbrel in 2008 and put him on an unusual development path. While most contemporary closers, including the great Mariano Rivera and Trevor Hoffman and even Aroldis Chapman, were starting pitchers at the outset of their minor league careers, Kimbrel was a late-inning reliever from his very first game in rookie ball.