The Evil Empire is at it again! The Dodgers are once again dipping into the free agent market, this time for an old Braves friend, signing Kirby Yates to a one-year, $13 million deal.
https://twitter.com/JeffPassan/status/1884429220157505742
The 37-year-old was quietly one of the best relievers in baseball last year, posting a 1.17 ERA across 61.2 innings and punching out 85 batters en route to 33 saves for the Rangers. Yates joins an already-loaded Dodgers pitching staff that features Tanner Scott, Blake Treinen, and Michael Kopech in the bullpen, along with Shohei Ohtani, Blake Snell, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Tyler Glasnow, and Roki Sasaki in the rotation.
The former lights out closer has had an extraordinary climb back to dominance. A few offseasons ago, the Braves took a gamble on him as he was coming off Tommy John surgery. He sat on the shelf for most of the 2022 campaign and came back in 2023.
He finished that 2023 season with a more than respectable 3.28 ERA and 11.9 K/9, but the Braves ended up declining to pick up his $5.75 million club option last offseason, opting to pay him a $1.25 million buyout, in part because of his peripherals. Obviously, it ended up being the wrong decision.
In 2024, Yates ranked in the 100th percentile in xERA, the 98th percentile in K%, and the 95th percentile in Barrel%.
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Photographer: Brian Rothmuller/Icon Sportswire
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