Craig Kimbrel gets an unexpected, overdone "thank you" after signing with the NY Mets

The “does he get a tribute video?” debate usually includes significant players. We know all of the major New York Mets who left this offseason will come back to Citi Field one day and have some sort of tribute. Only Edwin Diaz seems destined for a couple of boos.

A couple rungs down the ladder from the video tribute is the social media acknowledgement. One of the latest additions to the Mets, Craig Kimbrel, only pitched 11 innings in 13 games for the Houston Astros last year. They felt the need to give him a bit of southern, Texas love with a strange “thank you for everything” post.

If Craig Kimbrel gets a "thanks for everything" from the Astros, where's your parade for saving the environment by recycling?

When social media pages start sharing things like this, you know the offseason has come to a halt. Late January and into early February are the real dog days of baseball. Most major transactions have taken place. Not much is going on except for players your fans will forget about landing with new ball clubs.

The 11 innings Kimbrel pitched for Houston didn’t help them get to the playoffs or anything. He wasn’t even their closer. Effective as he may have been, it wasn’t impressive enough for anyone to reward him with a MLB deal.

In a Mets perspective, it would be like doing the same for Rico Garcia. He logged 12.2 innings in 8 games. He had better overall numbers. Would we have actually seen the Mets’ X account post something like this? Probably not. If anything, they’re lurking right now waiting to pounce with some mockery. They’ve done it before. Some rogue on the social media team is sure to file this one away to thank Frankie Montas for everything he did with the Mets when he signs in 2027.

There’s nothing wrong with being a nice person or tipping your cap to an ex-player. It’s the “thanks for everything” that almost comes across in the style of “thanks, chief” or any other patronizing salute.

It's especially odd to comment on a player only receiving a minor league deal. There are so many layers to such a simple social media post meant to fill a quota.