Kirby Yates Passes Physical, Signs One-Year Deal With Dodgers

Kirby Yates has passed his physical and agreed to a one-year deal with the Dodgers, according to multiple reports. The Beverly Hills Sports Council client is guaranteed $13MM and could unlock another $1MM in bonuses — $500K each at 50 and 55 appearances. The team has still not officially announced the signing.

Yates becomes the latest big acquisition in a huge Dodgers offseason. He’s their second marquee pickup in the late innings. Los Angeles signed Tanner Scott to a four-year, $72MM pact with deferrals not long before agreeing to terms with Yates. The Dodgers had also retained Blake Treinen on a two-year deal earlier in the winter. They’ll join Michael Kopech, Evan Phillips and Alex Vesia in what should be one of the game’s best relief groups.

Scott and Yates were arguably the two best free agent relievers, at least for the upcoming season. The 37-year-old Yates (38 in March) was never going to match the three-year terms for Jeff Hoffman and Clay Holmes, but he’s coming off the best platform season in the relief class. He turned in a sterling 1.17 earned run average while striking out nearly 36% of batters faced for the Rangers. Yates went 33-34 on save opportunities while firing 61 2/3 innings — the second-highest workload of his career.

Emmanuel Clase was the only reliever in MLB who was definitively better. Yates finished second behind Clase in ERA among relievers with 50+ innings. He was seventh in strikeout percentage. Yates placed in the top 25 in swinging strike rate (15.2%). Opponents had no success against either his 93 MPH fastball or his mid-80s splitter.

That was Yates’ second utterly dominant season. As a member of the Padres in 2019, he led MLB with 41 saves while turning in a 1.19 ERA across 60 2/3 frames. His next three years were essentially wiped out by injury, as he battled elbow issues and underwent his second career Tommy John procedure in March 2021. He returned to throw 60 1/3 innings of 3.28 ERA ball for the Braves in 2023 before signing a $4.5MM deal with Texas last winter.

Yates becomes the ninth free agent reliever of this offseason to sign for at least $10MM annually (not including swingman Nick Martinez, who accepted a qualifying offer from Cincinnati). He trails only Scott in average salary, though that’s obviously in large part because his age limited him to one year.

The Dodgers are well into the highest luxury tax tier and pay a 110% tax on any spending at this point. They’re investing $27.3MM to add Yates to the back of the bullpen for a year. RosterResource calculates their luxury tax ledger around $382MM — more than $70MM higher than any other club’s projected payroll.

Los Angeles will presumably announce the signing within the next day or two, which will require a 40-man roster move. That could be a simple DFA, though it’s also possible they trade from their bullpen. They’re planning to run a six-man rotation, which means they can only carry seven relievers.

Scott, Yates, Treinen, Kopech, Phillips and Vesia seem locked into six spots. Neither Anthony Banda nor Ryan Brasier can be optioned, so one of them would probably be squeezed out if everyone’s healthy on Opening Day. USA Today’s Bob Nightengale reported last week that the Dodgers were marketing Brasier in recognition of the forthcoming roster squeeze.

Bob Nightengale of USA Today first reported last week that Yates and the Dodgers had reached a tentative agreement, pending a physical. MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand was first to report that Yates had passed the physical and signed a one-year deal. ESPN”s Jeff Passan was first with the $13MM guarantee and $1MM in incentives, while Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic specified the $500K bonuses at 50 and 55 appearances. Image courtesy of Imagn.