Earlier this week, Michael Baumann wrote about how Kirby Yates has a chance to join Craig Kimbrel and Wade Davis as only relievers in MLB history with multiple seasons of 40 or more appearances and an ERA south of 1.25. Five years after logging a 1.19 ERA over 60 outings with the San Diego Padres, the 37-year-old right-hander has come out of the Texas Rangers bullpen 44 times and has a 1.19 ERA.
I procured subject-specific quotes from Yates for my colleague’s article, but there were a few other perspectives I wanted to glean from him as well. That he has quietly put up better numbers than many people realize was one of them. For instance, since he began throwing his signature splitter in 2017, the underrated righty has a 36.0% strikeout rate that ranks sixth-best among pitchers who have thrown at least 250 innings.
“It’s almost like a tale of two of two careers,” Yates said upon hearing that. “It’s before the split and then after the split. Now I’m getting into a situation where you could call it three careers in a sense — since [March 2021 Tommy John] surgery and how I’ve been coming back from that. Last year was good, but also kind of shaky. The two-and-a-half to three years off, I felt that. This year I feel more comfortable. I’ve felt like I could attack some things I needed to attack.”
Yates doesn’t feel that his splitter is quite as good as it was pre-surgery, although he does believe it is getting back to what it was. His fastball is another story. He told me that it’s never been better.
Which led me to another question. Why is his fastball, which ranks in the 34th percentile for velocity, as good as it is?
“I think hitters have a hard time seeing the ball,” reasoned Yates. “I think I hide it well. I think it comes out of a different slot than they’re used to. I’m also able to carry it well. Look, I know it’s 93 [mph], but it doesn’t seem like guys can catch up to it easily. It feels like it takes a few fastballs for them to get the timing down, which usually gives me the advantage because I can throw some other stuff in there to keep them off the heater.
“Everybody is so caught up in velo,” added Yates, who has 21 saves on the season. “What people are missing is that what’s happening at the plate tells a bigger story than any of the numbers. If the hitters are swinging and missing it doesn’t matter if it’s 88 or 98. The biggest thing is, ‘How can you miss barrels?’ There are a lot of guys who throw 98 to 100 and are struggling to miss barrels. There are other guys who have really good heaters — effective heaters — and are in the 92-94 range. What you see at the plate tells you good their fastball are.”
Hitters have a .132 batting average and a .198 slugging percentage against Yates’s heater this season. Against his splitter, those numbers are .119 and .153.
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RANDOM HITTER-PITCHER MATCHUPS
Jason Donald went 6 for 10 against Bruce Chen.
Josh Donaldson went 5 for 5 against Logan Gilbert.
John Donaldson went 4 for 6 against Bill Butler.
Billy Butler went 5 for 6 against Shawn Camp.
J.T. Realmuto went 5 for 6 against Eddie Butler.
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Players born on today’s date include Bucky Guth, an infielder whose big-league career comprised three games and three hitless plate appearances for the Minnesota Twins in 1972. Guth scored one run, with the RBI going to future MLB manager Charlie Manuel, whose given first and middle names are Charles Fuqua.
Also born on today’s date was Billy Consolo, a utility infielder who logged 250 hits while playing for five teams, primarily the Boston Red Sox and Minnesota Twins, from 1953-1962. A boyhood friend of Sparky Anderson, Consolo was on the Detroit Tigers coaching staff from 1979-1992 and again in 1995.
