The Rangers announced the signing of right-hander Kirby Yates to a one-year deal. It’s reportedly a $4.5MM guarantee for the Beverly Hills Sports Council client.
Yates, 37 in March, had something of a bounceback year in 2023, at least from a health perspective. Over the 2020-2022 seasons, he only tossed 11 1/3 total innings due to elbow injuries, requiring Tommy John surgery in March of 2021. He then signed a two-year deal with Atlanta, with that club knowing he wouldn’t be a big factor in 2022.
He was healthy enough to make 61 appearances in 2023 with a 3.28 earned run average, though the underlying metrics were less encouraging. His 31.5% strikeout rate was still very strong but he also walked 14.6% of batters faced. A low batting average on balls in play of .211 and a high strand rate of 85.4% helped to keep runs off the board, which is why his 4.63 FIP and 3.90 SIERA were a bit less bullish on his performance. Atlanta let him go by choosing a $1.25MM buyout rather than a $5.75MM salary on a club option for 2024.
But prior to his lengthy injury woes, Yates was one of the best pitchers in the league for a time. In 2018, he posted an ERA of 2.14 with the Padres, pairing a 36% strikeout rate with a 6.8% walk rate. He was even better in 2019, getting his ERA down to 1.19 as he struck out 41.6% of batters and walked just 5.3%, racking up 41 saves in that season.
Yates obviously wasn’t back to that level in 2023 and it’s probably not fair to expect he ever will be, given his age. But he was still getting plenty of strikeouts in 2023 and his 93.6mph fastball velocity was essentially all the way back to his pre-injury form, as he was at 93.9mph in 2018 and 93.5mph in 2019. Perhaps now that he is further removed from his surgery, his control will improve. It’s perhaps notable that he had an 18.5% walk rate through June 7 but a 12.3% rate from that point on, showing at least some signs of improvement.
Despite winning the World Series in 2023, the bullpen was an obvious weak spot for the Rangers. Collectively, their relievers had an ERA of 4.77 on the year, which placed them 24th in the league. Midseason pickups Aroldis Chapman and Chris Stratton reached free agency after the playoffs, along with one-year signee Will Smith. If Yates is in decent form next year, he can help them make up for those losses.
Ken Rosenthal of the Athletic first reported the Rangers were signing Yates to a one-year deal. Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News reported the $4.5MM guarantee.
Angels legend
Should of held these winter meetings in Antarctica
It’s a good signing. Don’t understand why the Braves turned down his option, as he had a solid 2022 season.
Yates allowed a lot of walks had a lot of base path traffic. When he came into a game he made a lot of drama never seemed to have clean innings.
The league only batted .167 against him, K percentage was 31.5%, hard hit % was 40% or two percentage points from his 2019 peak, 1.1 WAR (same or better than Duran, Chapman, Iglesias, Alvarado, Stephenson, Finnegan and better than Jimenez & Reynaldo Lopez).
Yes, the FIP was worse than his ERA.
Waaaaaaaay too many walks
We older folk refer to that as Don Stanhouse Disease.
Solid by what metric? His advanced stats indicate he pitched way worse than his ERA might imply. Definitely not worth $5.75 million
It’s from a Yankees fan, so what do we expect
LOL…seriously going to judge me by the team that I root for? That’s the weakest response to a comment.
Yep, you can go cry.
More than happy to engage with other commentators that have differing viewpoints. No time for your childish retorts. Bye
They’re new.
Between the Braves’ buyout and his Rangers contract, he got his $5.75 mil, after all. Funny how things work out, sometimes.
The Braves turned down his option because they had no room for him.
They signed Reynaldo Lopez after cutting him. Lopez got almost twice as much with a lower WAR.
And if we look at Lopez as SP, something he hasn’t done in years, his FIPs were 4.63 and 5.04.
War isn’t a RP stat
You didn’t watch him pitch, obviously.
Gotta get some arms for that bullpen. Yates isn’t the worst that Texas could have signed.
The biggest news of these meetings is Dave Roberts saying they met with Ohtani when everyone in the world knew they would meet.
Bochy wanted him bad.
Not the ex-Padres closer that I thought Rangers would sign!
Yeah, Heath Bell! He’s only 46!
I was kind of thinking more about Hader. I guess there is always Brad Hand – a guy that I also found very like able as a Padres fan.
Hader – not so much and good riddance with his “I only pitch 1 inning and when I feel like it” attitude.
Trevor Hoffman probably still throws a nasty changeup
I was mostly thinking of active guys but I realize I forgot Craig Kimbrel was still available in addition. To Brad Hand and Josh Hader. I’m not sure what Mark Melancon’s status is for 2024. Trevor Rosenthal, Taylor Rogers ….
Crazy he’s had his best years as a non-Ray, usually the Rays unlock the gaudy numbers he posted shortly after, to be honest I forgot he played in Tampa.
Very interesting.
No risk signing.
Clo – I’m a big KY fan from his Padres days and wish him well. That said, it could be a $5 million risk. Comments like “no risk signing” at minor league contracts or mlb minimum type deals.
Seems to be a decent signing, but it would be wise for the Rangers to go bigger here. Address their known weakness.
That’s what they are doing, and one signing, no matter who it is, won’t rebuild the bullpen.
Wow, Rangers just got Stronger.
I’d take this over Joe Kelly at 8 million.
Prayers have been answered. Good luck in Texas, Kirby
Still an improvement from what Rangers had in 2023.
Probably better than Will Smith.
Except Will Smith wins you World Serieseses.
Not in 2023
@ etex211 – Pitcher Will Smith won in 2023. Three years in a row WS winner with three different teams (only man to have that). And catcher Will Smith won in 2019. Four straight years a Will Smith has won a WS ring.
Umm, Washington won the WS in 2019. Over the cheating cheater Astros.
Will Smith had a few decent outings early in the season, but was awful in the second half of the season. 13.50 ERA in the World Series…
The Rangers won the World Series despite Will Smith, not because of Will Smith.
Will Smith is nothing more than a good luck charm.
Kirby is fine for a middle innings guy. They need lefties. Either a big lefty relief arm or a solid lefty starter to bump Heaney into relief. I think Heaney could be a really good high leverage guy late in games.
Hopefully there’s a plan in place to get Burke straightened out because he could really help with this.
What about a reunion with Matt Moore?
Sure I would welcome him back. On paper he’s an upgrade over Chapman who probably won’t be back. Maybe you bring back Moore and try to get Burke right. I could live with that knowing Langford is on his way and DeGrom should be back sometime late summer.
Sign Chapman/Bauer/Urias and go for an all minimum wages superstar trio! BP set