After throwing to hitters a few times down in Arizona, Craig Kimbrel will now join the Iowa Cubs in Sacramento, where he'll pitch in game for the first time this season on Tuesday.
Jordan Bastian, who covers the Cubs for MLB.com, speculated earlier in the week that Kimbrel might have five appearances in the minors before he gets called up. But again, the team hasn't publicly stated any specific timetable for Kimbrel's return to the majors.
However, the expectation is that Kimbrel will be ready to join the Cubs bullpen before the end of June.
Arizona Phil wrote up a detailed overview at the Cub Reporter of Kimbrel's throwing sessions this past week. You can read it here.
Kimbrel faced live hitters on Thursday and Saturday. The main takeaways were that Kimbrel showed good velocity on his fastball, but did struggle with his command and gave up some hard contact on Saturday. He was much better on Thursday.
However, Kimbrel still feels good and now he's taking the next step in his process back to the majors.
So, Tuesday, Kimbrel will finally pitch in a game!
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