Veteran reliever had a 1.17 ERA and 1.86 xERA with Texas in 2024. LA’s plan this offseason seems to be acquire nearly everyone, and sort them out later.
In an attempt to try and leave as little to chance as possible, the Dodgers’ addition of Tanner Scott was not the end of their relief acquisitions. The team is also in discussions to add veteran right-hander Kirby Yates to the bullpen as well, per multiple reports.
Bob Nightengale of USA Today was the first to report the Yates-Dodgers connection, and he even noted that the team reached a tentative agreement with the soon-to-be 37-year-old right-hander who saved 33 games for the Rangers in 2024. Jon Heyman of the New York Post said a deal wasn’t official but very likely, Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic said the Dodgers and Yates are in “serious discussions.”
Jack Harris of the Los Angeles Times confirmed the “Dodgers are working toward a deal” with Yates.
Yates had a minuscule 1.17 ERA and 1.86 xERA with Texas last season, with 85 strikeouts (a 24-percent strikeout rate) and 28 walks in 61⅔ innings. Injuries limited Yates to just 11⅓ innings from 2020-22 combined, but he’s been healthy the last two seasons, appearing in 61 games in back-to-back years, posting a combined 2.21 ERA and 3.55 FIP with 165 strikeouts between Atlanta and the Rangers.
Though Yates’ fastball — which he throws 60 percent of the time — averages just 93.2 mph, he generates plenty of swing-and-miss in the strike zone on the pitch to stay effective, as Thomas Nestico showed on Bluesky:
Kirby Yates (signed by LAD) was one of the most dominant closers in MLB last season
His 4-Seam was one of the best whiff fastballs in baseball and returned a phenomenal 32.9 Z-Whiff% while also effectively limiting damage against
The Dodgers keep getting stronger
— Thomas Nestico (@tjstats.nesti.co) 2025-01-21T15:52:16.619Z
The appeal of Yates is obvious, but this comes back to the looming Dodgers’ pitching roster crunch that we talked about on Monday.
But this isn’t just figuring out which arms will be active once the season starts. To that end, Nightengale tweeted that Michael Kopech is expected to miss a month. Fabian Ardaya and Rosenthal at The Athletic said Kopech “dealt with a forearm issue throughout the postseason, league sources said, but it was not deemed to be anything he couldn’t pitch through.”
There is a more pressing issue to process the Dodgers’ latest bullpen additions. At the moment, 39 players reside on the Dodgers’ 40-man roster. Scott, with his four-year, $72 million contract, will take that open slot. Adding Yates would require a corresponding move to create roster space. The 60-day injured list cannot be used until pitchers and catchers report to camp on February 10.
.