Kirby Yates is done.
The former San Diego Padres closer announced his retirement after the final game of the season, according to a report from AJ Eustace of MLBTradeRumors.com. For the Padres, that means one of the most electric bullpen runs in recent team history now belongs fully to the past.
Yates spent parts of his career with the New York Yankees, Atlanta Braves and Los Angeles Dodgers, but his peak came in San Diego in 2018 and 2019. Over those two seasons, he logged 123-2/3 innings and paired a 38.7 percent strikeout rate with a 6.1 percent walk rate and a 45.2 percent ground-ball rate.
The numbers were even sharper when it came to run prevention. Yates posted a 1.67 ERA during that stretch and collected 53 saves, including 41 in 2019 alone.
That 2019 season stood out even more: he finished with a 1.19 ERA, earned his first All-Star selection and even picked up Cy Young votes. It was the kind of year that gets remembered whenever the best closers in the game are discussed.
His final stop with the Angels didn’t go nearly as smoothly. Yates appeared in 31 games, went 0-5 and finished with a 3.95 ERA. The Angels eventually shifted him into a lower-leverage role after he lost the closer job, though that ERA tells only part of the story.
As a closer, the results were rougher. Yates had three blown saves and three saves before the Angels moved him at the deadline in a minor trade with the Pittsburgh Pirates.
Once he got to Pittsburgh, he was much better, putting up a 1.80 ERA. Pirates manager Don Kelly even used him as the opener against the Detroit Tigers in a game that included the final start of Justin Verlander.
Yates had said he was “running on fumes” late in the year, and that seemed to show in Anaheim. The Angels brought him in hoping a reunion with pitching coach Mike Maddux would help, since Maddux had gotten good results from Yates with the Texas Rangers, but the fit never really clicked. Yates struggled with low velocity, and Maddux was fired by the Angels in midseason.
Still, the retirement announcement closes the book on a career that had plenty of high points, and none higher than those two seasons in San Diego.
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