Rangers sign relief pitcher Kirby Yates

Kirby Yates of Lihue, Hawaii is joining the reigning World Series champion Texas Rangers. On Tuesday, Yates signed a one-year deal worth $4.5 million.

This will be Yates’s sixth Major League team. He has previously played for the Tampa Bay Rays (2014 to 2015), the New York Yankees (2016), the Los Angeles Angels (2017), the San Diego Padres (2017 to 2020), and the Atlanta Braves (2022 and 2023). Yates missed the 2021 season because of Tommy John Surgery.

Yates’s 2023 MLB Statistics

Yates pitched 61 games in 2023 with the Braves and had a record of seven wins and two losses with an earned run average of 3.28. In 60 1/3 innings pitched, he gave up 35 hits, 22 earned runs, nine home runs, and 37 walks, to go along with five saves, nine holds, 80 strikeouts, and a WHIP (walks and hits per innings pitched) of 1.19.

Rebounded after a shaky start

Yates gave up three earned runs after his first three innings. However, after that he only gave up two earned runs in his next dozen appearances. On May 3, in a 14-6 Braves win over the Miami Marlins, Yates pitched a perfect eighth inning, as he struck out the side. He threw 17 pitches, and had 11 strikes.

One of 28 Hawaiian Pitchers in MLB history

Yates is one of 28 Hawaiian pitchers all-time. The most notable are Charlie Hough, Ron Darling, Milt Wilcox and Sid Fernandez. Hough led Major League Baseball with 17 complete games in 1984 and was an All-Star with the Texas Rangers in 1986. Darling was a National League All-Star in 1985, and won a World Series with the New York Mets in 1986. Wilcox won a World Series with the Detroit Tigers in 1984, while Fernandez teamed up with Darling to win the 1986 World Series, and was a National League All-Star with the Mets in 1986 and 1987.

Yates is also the all-time leader in saves among Hawaiians. He has one more save than Hough.

All-Star in 2019

Yates represented the National League and San Diego Padres at the 2019 National League All-Star Game. That season he led the Major Leagues with 41 saves and had an earned run average of 1.19.