Despite the barrage of home runs being hit against him, there is a reason to be optimistic about Craig Kimbrel‘s 2020 season. You wouldn’t know it from the fastballs he grooved en route to a 6.53 ERA, but his knuckle curveball spin rate gradually increased as 2020 progressed.
Kimbrel’s breaking ball made him one of the game’s elite closers and helped turn Yu Darvish back into the ace the Cubs needed him to be. Darvish didn’t actually get to see Kimbrel’s best curve, which may have come at the end of the 2018 season.