Jun 7, 2019 4 min read

After missing more than one-third of a season while waiting for the right offer, Craig Kimbrel found a home with the Chicago Cubs.

“Am I disappointed at where I am? No. not all at all. I’m very happy where I am,” Kimbrel said Friday after the Cubs finalized a three-year contract that guarantees the closer $43 million.

Kimbrel helped Boston win the World Series, then turned down a $17.9 million qualifying offer from the Red Sox in November and waited.

And waited.

“I don’t think waiting around trying to find out who I’m going work for the next year has really been the hardest thing I’ve been through,” he said. “If anything, there’s blessings as well. Good to be home, spend time with family.”

Spring training came and went. And still the 31-year-old right-hander did not get an offer he liked.

“We kind of understood kind of how the lay of the land was going throughout the offseason, the offers we were getting, the offers we were not getting,” Kimbrel said. “I obviously had a lot of players reaching out, asking, ‘Hey what’s going on?’ I kind of had to stay in my shell a little bit and let this thing ride out.”

Kimbrel gets $10 million this year – a prorated share of his $16,173,913 listed salary – and $16 million in each of the following two seasons.

Chicago has a $16 million option for 2022 with a $1 million buyout, and the buyout price would increase by $1 million each for 53 or more games finished in 2020 and 2021. The option would become guaranteed if he has at least 110 games finished in 2021-22 combined, including a minimum 55 in 2021, and he does not have a non-temporary injury.

He has a full no-trade provision this year, and a limited no-trade provision for 2020 in which he must by this Oct. 31 designate eight teams he can’t be deal to without his consent.

Philadelphia 4, Cincinnati 2: Jay Bruce hit a two-run homer, Zach Eflin threw 6 1/3 sharp innings and the Philadelphia Phillies beat the Cincinnati Reds 4-2 Friday night.

Bruce already has four homers in four games with the NL East-leading Phillies after hitting 14 for Seattle before he was acquired in a trade last week.

Joey Votto hit a solo shot for the Reds, who have dropped four of five.

American League

Tampa Bay 5, Boston 1: Yonny Chirinos pitched two-hit ball for eight scoreless innings and the Tampa Bay Rays stopped Boston’s four-game winning streak, beating the Red Sox, 5-1.

Kevin Kiermaier homered and drove in four runs and Ji-Man Choi also homered for the Rays, who didn’t need much offense to front Chirinos in the longest outing of his career.

Chirinos (7-2) had never gone more than 7 1/3 innings before stifling the Red Sox. He cruised through the first five innings on just 50 pitches and didn’t allow a baserunner or hit until the sixth.

Cleveland 5, N.Y. Yankees 2: Carlos Santana’s two-run homer in the sixth inning helped rookie Zach Plesac get his first major league win and sent the Cleveland Indians to a 5-2 win over the New York Yankees, who welcomed back shortstop Didi Gregorius on Friday night.

Santana broke a 2-all tie by connecting on a change-up from Domingo German (9-2), trying to become baseball’s first 10-game winner.

Making just his third start, Plesac (1-1) settled down after a few anxious innings and stifled the AL East’s top team. The Yankees, who are just 1-3 so far on a six-game trip, managed just six hits – and only two after the third – in seven innings against the right-hander and nephew of former major leaguer Dan Plesac.