MLB: Why Dallas Keuchel and Craig Kimbrel Should Be Signed

All-Star Pitchers Dallas Keuchel and Craig Kimbrel should be signed but remain free agents, and they won’t be signed until after the MLB draft. Here’s why…

There is no doubt that about every single MLB franchise wants Dallas Keuchel and/or Craig Kimbrel on their team, but the reason they aren’t is because of a thing called draft pick compensation.

This is the biggest hurdle in signing one of the two pitchers because if a team goes out and signs one of them, they will be forfeiting a draft pick, which major league front offices do not want to do.

The Compensatory Pick is the most overrated part of free agency. General Managers all around the league are treating their compensatory pick like they know it is going to be a future Hall of Famer.

Craig Kimbrel and Dallas Keuchel have already helped their former employers win a World Series. Keuchel pitched well for the Astros in their championship in 2017 while Kimbrel closed down games in the postseason for the Red Sox last season.

Signing an All-Star pitcher could propel your franchise to a World Series like the acquisition of Justin Verlander helped Houston in 2017.

With that said, a pick in triple digits isn’t worth betting on when you could sign a franchise-altering pitcher with the talent of Keuchel and Kimbrel.

Now you may be thinking teams should just wait until after the draft so they can get their amateur player in addition to Keuchel or Kimbrel, but small market teams may not be able to sign them.

As I wrote about last week, Dallas Keuchel has already been rumored to want to sign with a big market team like the Yankees so teams like the Milwaukee Brewers may not be a consideration for Dallas Keuchel.

Here are the teams that should sign Keuchel or Kimbrel before the draft on June 3…