Tigers Interested In Kirby Yates

Right-hander Kirby Yates is one of the better relievers available in free agency. The Cubs have already been connected to him in rumors and now Ari Alexander of KPRC 2 reports that the Tigers can be added to the list.

Yates, 38 in March, just wrapped up an excellent season with the Rangers. He tossed 61 2/3 innings for them this year, allowing just 1.17 earned runs per nine. He surely got a bit of help from a .168 batting average on balls in play and 88.1% strand rate, which were both on the fortunate side, but even adjusted numbers like his 2.50 FIP and 2.85 SIERA suggest he would have fared well even with less favor from the baseball gods.

His 11.1% walk rate was on the high side but he counteracted that by striking out 35.9% of batters faced and keeping 45.5% of balls in play on the ground. He took over the closer’s role in Texas, earning 33 saves on the year.

Despite that strong performance, Yates will be limited in the kind of contract he can secure. That’s both on account of his age and also his injury history. He hardly pitched at all during the 2020 to 2022 period, mostly due to undergoing Tommy John surgery, the second such procedure of his career. He bounced back in 2023 with a solid but not dominant season, posting a 3.28 ERA with a 31.5% strikeout rate, 14.6% walk rate and 36.4% ground ball rate.

Accounting for those factors, Yates is likely looking at a one-year deal this winter. At the start of the offseason, MLBTR predicted him for a one-year pact with a $14MM guarantee as part of our annual Top 50 Free Agents post.

The Tigers could have some budgetary wiggle room and seem to want to avoid long-term deals. It was reported last week that they wanted to keep their potential starting pitching signing to one- or two-year pacts, then they signed 37-year-old Alex Cobb to a one-year deal. If they have a similar mindset for upgrading their bullpen, then Yates make a lot of sense.

RosterResource projects their payroll at just $95MM for next year. That’s roughly in line with last year’s payroll but they’ve been far higher in the past. Per Cot’s Baseball Contracts, they had a $200MM payroll as recently as 2017. That was the year that owner Mike Ilitch died and the club hasn’t been in that range since Mike’s son Christopher took over. However, the Tigers did run the payroll up to $135MM going into 2022 when they thought their rebuild was over. That didn’t end up being the case but they finally cracked the postseason in 2024 for the first time in a decade.

The Tigers currently have Beau Brieske, Jason Foley and Tyler Holton as some of their more interesting relievers but no one of that group has reached 200 MLB innings pitched or celebrated a 30th birthday. Just about any club in the majors could add someone like Yates and bump everyone else down a peg on the pecking order, but that’s perhaps especially true in Detroit where there aren’t a lot of guys cemented in.