Veteran reliever Kirby Yates and the Angels have agreed to terms on a one-year contract, according to a report from 7News Boston’s Ari Alexander on Tuesday. The team has not confirmed the deal.
Yates’ 2025 season was bittersweet. After signing a one-year, $12 million deal with the Dodgers last offseason, the veteran right-hander made three trips to the injured list, finished the regular season with a 5.23 ERA and didn’t appear in the playoffs.
On the bright side, he earned a World Series ring in the end. Moreover, some of his underlying metrics — including a 35.3% whiff rate and a 29.1% strikeout rate — provide hope as he heads into his age-39 campaign in 2026.
Yates also isn’t far removed from a dominant 2024 season with the Rangers, when he made the AL All-Star team and posted a 1.17 ERA with 85 strikeouts and 33 saves over 61 2/3 innings — a performance made even more impressive when you consider it was only his second full season back from Tommy John surgery.
The fact that Yates is still pitching is remarkable on its own. It’s been more than 15 years since he went undrafted out of Yavapai College in Prescott, Ariz., having spent a chunk of his college career rehabbing from his first Tommy John surgery in 2006. (The Hawaii native was selected by the Red Sox in the 26th round of the ’05 Draft as a high schooler but didn’t sign.)
Yates signed with the Rays shortly after the 2009 Draft but wouldn’t make his big league debut for another five years, at which point he was already 27. After stints with the Rays, Yankees and Angels, Yates found a home with the Padres, who claimed him off waivers from the Halos in 2017. He fully blossomed at the age of 32 in 2019, earning his first All-Star selection en route to a 1.19 ERA with an MLB-leading 41 saves.
Yates was limited to just 15 appearances over the next three seasons, undergoing surgery to remove bone chips from his elbow in 2020 before having Tommy John surgery for the second time in ’21. However, he enjoyed a rebound season with the Braves in 2023 (3.28 ERA) before regaining his All-Star form with the Rangers in ’24.
