Yates out to prove elite splitter is still capable of dominance

Scott Mitchell

Follow| Archive

TORONTO — Having an ace atop the rotation is the glue that can hold a starting staff together over the course of a long season.

Every fifth day, it’s either a losing streak stopper or a way to give even the most potent lineups a bit of a break.

It's similar at the back end of a bullpen.

Despite the ever-changing usage of relievers, their importance continues to increase and having a relief ace goes a long way in terms of keeping a ‘pen glued together over the course of 162 games.

The Toronto Blue Jays hope Kirby Yates is that guy in 2021, and early returns behind the scenes in Dunedin have the club encouraged that the soon-to-be 34-year-old right-hander is finding his 2019 form coming off the elbow surgery that shut him down last August.

Yates feels he’s on the right track with three weeks to go until opening day at Yankee Stadium.

“I feel like I’m on a perfect schedule,” said Yates, who is slated to make his Grapefruit League debut Thursday against the Detroit Tigers, noting that seven or eight appearances is what he usually needs to be ready for the regular season. “I feel like I’m right where I need to be and it’s just a matter of now going out there, pitching in some games, recovering and being able to do it over and over again.

“It’s full-go. It’s go out there, get ready, get these guys out and prove that I’m still capable of pitching at a high level.”

Even fully healthy, whether he can be as good as he was two years ago when he closed out 41 games for the San Diego Padres may be more of a question of it being humanly possible, given that his 1.19 ERA, 101 punchouts, and just 13 free passes across 60.2 innings was as good of a season as a reliever has ever posted.

The Jays don’t need a carbon copy of that, but it shows the ceiling, and that upside is the reason general manager Ross Atkins was willing to hand Yates a $5.5 million base salary with reachable appearances incentives that could earn him up to an additional $1.7 million.

It could send Yates into free agency next winter as one of the crown jewels of the reliever market, making it a win-win for both parties if his split-finger fastball is dipping and diving like it did two years ago.

Calling the splitter dirty would be an understatement.

In 2019, the 86-mph out-pitch held opposing batters to a .153/.169/.178 slash line.
It’s an elite offering and finding his mechanics in bullpen and live BP sessions over the past couple of weeks has been key to getting the feel for that pitch again.

“I feel like once I kind of dialed those back in, it just plays right off my fastball,” Yates said. “It’s been good. It’s been consistent. I’m getting consistent break with it. It’s just a matter of commanding it, which I feel like I’ve done and it’ll get better as the spring goes on and I get more feel. I can sit here and throw bullpens as much as I want, but the real test is when you’re out there facing opposing hitters and what the hitter is telling you. We’ll see where it’s at. I feel like it’s really good. I feel like with my fastball and everything, I’m really close to being back to what I was.”

Creative reliever usage is a growing trend across baseball these days, but with the way Yates has looked in the early going, the Jays now seem very willing to hand him the keys to the ninth inning, a role he wants and a role he is comfortable in.

“I think everybody expects me to be a closer here,” Yates said. “I would like to, but there’s a lot of guys that are throwing the ball really well and I’ve gotta go out there and do the same. I don’t expect it to be be given to me. I don’t expect anything to be given to me, but if I go out there and do what I’m capable of and go out there and pitch well, I think, it should be mine to lose. But we have a really good bullpen and if I’m not pitching the ninth inning, that means somebody else behind me is better and I’m fine with that.”

A healthy and dominant Yates would allow manager Charlie Montoyo to mix and match with Jordan Romano, Rafael Dolis, Tyler Chatwood, David Phelps, lefty Ryan Borucki and perhaps a healthy Julian Merryweather in important spots prior to the final inning.

While you never really know with relievers and bullpens in general thanks to the year-to-year volatility, this Jays ‘pen has the makings of a good one on paper in mid-March.
There’s also massive room for improvement when you look at the numbers from last summer’s shortened season.

Contrary to the overall improvements the Jays made as a team to finish four games above .500 and make the expanded postseason, the bullpen was taxed from the get-go, and Jays relievers combined on a 4.71 ERA, the seventh-worst mark in baseball.

Even more concerning were the 144 free passes issued, the most of any bullpen in baseball.

After adding three of the aforementioned names in free agency this winter, there’s a lot to like here — again, on paper, in March — but a Yates resurgence is of the utmost importance to really tie it all together.