3 players the Cubs should sell high on this offseason

From the end of his run with the Boston Red Sox during the 2018 playoffs (eight walks in 10.2 innings) to his shortened first season with the Cubs in 2019 (6.53 ERA over 23 appearances), Kimbrel looked like a shell of his former self.

Kimbrel didn’t start the 2020 season any better, as he allowed seven runs in his first four appearances (23.63 ERA). But after suggesting he had found the cause of his struggles, he had a 1.42 ERA over his last 14 appearances (12.2 innings) with 26 strikeouts and seven walks.

Kimbrel is entering the final fully guaranteed year of the three-year, $43 million deal he signed with the Cubs, and he’s due to make $16 million. He has a $16 million club option for 2022, with a $1 million buyout.

Kimbrel’s late resurgence this past season is a promising sign, if his problem was mostly mechanical as he suggested and he fixed it. He also still pitched high leverage innings during that late run, finishing the game for the Cubs in nine of those 14 appearances.

But his sample of work before that, due to signing late in 2019 after draft pick compensation went away and/or any residual physical issues, is just as troubling for a pitcher who will turn 33 next May. Unloading a minimum $17 million commitment, at what could be the last high point in Kimbrel’s value off his good finish in 2020, has to be on the Cubs’ radar.