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Kimbrel was slated to do most of his spring training work toward the end of camp but will instead need to ramp up quickly whenever the regular season is able to begin, Mark Gonzales of the Chicago Tribune reports.
After Kimbrel missed all of last spring training, the Cubs' plan this year was to ease him into Cactus League play and then ramp their closer up over the final week or so of camp. The coronavirus pandemic abruptly changed those plans, meaning Kimbrel will have to hit the ground running whenever the season starts. The 31-year-old struggled out of the gates last year and never really got comfortable in Chicago, and he wasn't off to a great start this spring either with a 10.13 ERA, albeit in just 2.2 innings of work. Fantasy owners would have preferred to see Kimbrel find some success before the regular season started, but they'll instead have to trust that he can find the form that made him a dominant reliever over the previous eight years.
