The Los Angeles Angels thought Kirby Yates could be their closer, but they turned out to be very wrong about that.
The Los Angeles Angels thought right-handed reliever Kirby Yates could be their closer when he signed a minor-league deal with the team during the offseason, but instead he was the opposite of that, and over the weekend Yates announced his retirement, according to a report from AJ Eustace of MLBTradeRumors.com.
Yates had a memorable career with many highlights for multiple teams, but unfortunately his Angels stint wasn’t one of them. He appeared in 31 games and posted an 0-5 record with a 3.95 ERA, which is somewhat deceptive because the Angels began babying him as a low-leverage reliever after he flunked out as closer.
A more accurate assessment would be his record as closer, as he had three blown saves to go with the three he did manage to get. The Angels unloaded him at the deadline in a minor deal with the Pittsburgh Pirates, and Yates was surprisingly good as he had an ERA of 1.80. Pirates manager Don Kelly allowed Yates to pitch as the opener against the Detroit Tigers in a game that featured the final start of Justin Verlander.
Yates did say he was “running on fumes” near the end, which is almost certainly a reference to his time with the Angels. The idea behind signing Yates was to reunite him with pitching coach Mike Maddux, who had success with Yates with the Texas Rangers, but Yates struggled with low velocity and Maddux was fired by the Angels in midseason.
Yates also appeared with the New York Yankees, Atlanta Braves and Los Angeles Dodgers, but his best years came in 2018-2019 for the San Diego Padres. The 2018-19 seasons saw Yates at his best. He threw 123-2/3 innings during that time with a 38.7 percent strikeout rate, a 6.1 percent walk rate, and a 45.2 percent ground-ball rate.
More impressively, Yates pitched to an ERA of 1.67 during that stretch, and he also notched 53 saves, including 41 in an utterly dominant 2019 season. The reliever had an even lower ERA of 1.19 that season, and he made his first All-Star game. Yates even drew votes for the Cy Young Award, and that season will be cited as one of the best ever for any closer.
But Yates’ tenure with San Diego ended in 2020 due to bone chips in his elbow, and he blew out his elbow the following spring with the Toronto Blue Jays. Angels fans will remember Yates as a player who always took the ball when called on, including during those low-leverage innings when the Angels needed him to eat innings once their season tanked.
