Pirates’ Kirby Yates Explains Retirement Decision

As the Pittsburgh Pirates prepare to close the books on the 2026 season on Sunday afternoon, one of the pitchers in their bullpen gets ready to close the books on not only this year, but his career, too.

Kirby Yates announced after Saturday’s game that he's made the decision to retire after 12 seasons pitching at the big-league level. The 39-year-old has thrown nearly 500 innings as a Major League pitcher, but is now ready to move on to his post-playing career.

Even before Yates made his retirement official, it seemed likely, as the Pirates players gave him a massive ovation and he tipped his hat to the crowd.

After Yates made his final appearance of his career on Saturday, he explained what went into his decision to retire. The overarching reason, Yates said, is that he just felt like he’d been out of gas for a while and just felt like it was time, and it's felt like that for a while.

“This is it. Just didn't really want to say anything publicly before, till the end,” Yates said postgame. “I don't have anything left. Let's put it that way. I've been running on fumes here for a while.”

The veteran pitcher also said he wanted his kids to have a chance to see him pitch, understand what he did for so long, and understand what baseball is truly all about.

Yates ending his career in Pittsburgh is a little ironic, considering that out of all eight teams he’s pitched for, he spent the least amount of time with the Pirates. He only pitched in 15 games with the Pirates after Pittsburgh acquired him ahead of the trade deadline at the beginning of August.

Yates admitted that he never wanted to get traded. However, the veteran called the trade a blessing in disguise because it helped him focus more on the game of baseball and pitching, which brought back his joy.

Yates’ stint with the Pirates may have been short, but he said it would hold a special place because it gave him the excitement to actually play baseball again in the twilight of his career.

Yates wraps up his career with a 3.19 ERA, a 1.14 WHIP, and 101 saves, including a World Series ring with the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2025. These numbers likely aren’t good enough for Yates to end up in Cooperstown, but it can’t be denied that he was one of the most reliable high-leverage relievers over the last decade.

In his last big-league outing, Yates actually did something for the first time in his career, which was starting for the Pirates as they went with a bullpen game.

Yates described Saturday as an awesome day, and it sure was an awesome way to wrap up an accomplished career.