8:36 am: The Jays are finalists for Yates, but have not yet reached a deal, tweets Ken Rosenthal of Atlético. More Heyman tweets that Yates is “inclined” to the Blue Jays, but has yet to formally agree to anything.
8:28 am: Free Agent Reliever Kirby Yates said he was close to a decision since earlier this week, and Scott Mitchell of TSN reports this morning that Yates is “firmly” on the Blue Jays’ radar. Yates is scheduled to meet with team officials at the organization’s spring training complex in Dunedin, Florida, by Mitchell, who adds that he said Yates is not “just visiting”. Jon Heyman of MLB Network tweets that Yates and the Jays are close to an agreement.
Yates shot in just six games last season before undergoing surgery to remove bone fragments from his elbow – a procedure that ended the already truncated 2020 season for the former All-Star. Yates, 33 (34 in March), went from resigning a dominant reliever in an equally meteoric way to the former Padres teammate Brad Hand and the new White Sox closer Liam Hendriks.
After a strong first season in San Diego in 2017, Yates added a division to his arsenal and saw his career take off; in 2018-19, Yates led all qualified relievers with an ERA of 1.67 and took third place with a SIERA of 2.14 over the lifetime of 123 2/3 innings. Along the way, he hit 38.7% of the hitters he faced, while walking with only 6.1% of the opponents. Among qualified MLB substitutes, only Josh Hader and Edwin Diaz exceeded it in terms of K-BB% during that time.
The Blue Jays received intermediate results from their bullpen in 2020, but quietly enjoyed some strong performances from unannounced members of the aid corps. Noob Jordan Romano, returned after failing to stay with the Rangers after the Rule 5 Draft, allowed only two runs in 14 2/3 innings while eliminating 21 of the 57 batters he faced. Right Ex-Cubs Rafael Dolismeanwhile, he joined the Jays after an impressive race in Japan and yielded just four races won out of 24 entries, while hitting 31 of the 100 batters he faced. Tom Hatch and Julian Merryweather, acquired in the respective David Phelps and Josh Donaldson, both gave Jay reasons for optimism as well as their MLB debuts as well.
As encouraging as some of these displays may have been, the Jays do not have experienced arms at the back of their bullpen. Ken Giles, who entered the 2020 season as the closest to Toronto, lost almost the entire year due to Tommy John’s surgery and is now a free agent. Veteran right Anthony Bass, one of the team’s most trusted options in 2020, is also a free agent at the moment.
Toronto reportedly agreed to the right-handed terms Tyler Chatwood, another bullpen candidate, last night. It still seems likely that the Jays, who have been linked to countless free agents this winter as one of the few clubs really willing to spend significant money, will make more additions to the bullpen, even if a deal with Yates ultimately happens. Notably, beginners became substitutes Anthony Kay and Ryan Borucki they are the only lefties in the Toronto bullpen. While Borucki will likely join the club due to a lack of secondary league options, Kay fought for an ERA north of 5.00 thanks to a bloated walking rate of 14 percent in 2020 and has remaining secondary league options.