WASHINGTON – When looking at the Braves in spring training, one knew the opening-day roster perhaps would look much different than the one in, say, August. The Braves opened the season missing multiple players they expected to contribute.
One of them, Kirby Yates, is set to take another step toward returning.
Yates on Saturday will begin a rehab assignment, a person with knowledge of the situation confirmed to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The right-handed reliever, once one of baseball’s best closers, will start with the Florida Complex League Braves.
Pitchers are allowed to be on a rehab assignment for 30 days. The Braves will evaluate many factors with Yates, including how he performs and how he recovers physically, when deciding how much time he’ll need on his rehab assignment before being considered to join the club.
Yates is working to return from his second Tommy John surgery, which he underwent in March 2021. Recently, he has been in Florida, like Mike Soroka, building toward a rehab assignment.
“I’m excited about seeing when he gets going,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said before Thursday’s series opener versus the Nationals. “Just a valuable guy for us.”
Yates, an All-Star in 2019, pitched to a 1.19 ERA over 60-2/3 innings and collected 41 saves that season. In 2018, he posted a 2.14 ERA over 63 frames. He hasn’t pitched in the big leagues since 2020.
In an interview with the AJC in May, Yates said he would not rely on his track record to earn a spot in the Braves’ bullpen upon his return.
“Look, I have to prove to (president of baseball operations) Alex (Anthopoulos) that I can come back and pitch at a high level before he makes any kind of decision on me,” Yates said then. “It’s not like, hey, I’m healthy, I’m ready to go. And if I’m down at Triple-A or doing whatever I am on my assignment and Alex isn’t comfortable bringing me up, he’s not going to bring me up.
“I have to go back out there. I have to prove to myself that I’m still capable of getting big-league outs, and prove to (Alex) and people in this organization that I’m the guy that is able to help the team.”
Yates has reached the point during which he can prove himself. This rehab assignment is the latest step in his attempt to return.
If he comes back and contributes for the Braves, it would be a good story. Before the Blue Jays signed him in 2021, the Braves had agreed to sign him until he failed their physical. Yates never pitched for the Blue Jays because he required Tommy John surgery.
On Oct. 26, 2021, after the Braves defeated the Dodgers to punch a ticket to the World Series, Yates sent a text to Braves president of baseball operations Alex Anthopoulos that read:
“I knew I chose right! Congratulations and good luck in the series.”
In an interview during spring training, Yates said he feared his career might be over when he learned he needed Tommy John surgery for the second time in his career. He said he became emotional when he left his wife and kids to head to his surgery.
“I think that was hard because you don’t want it to end,” Yates told the AJC at the time. “I wasn’t ready for it to end.”
Don’t look past the Nationals
The Nationals entered the series with the Braves with a 30-60 record. Yes, you read that correctly.
It might be a long summer in Washington.
The Braves, who arrived here at 53-37, know they can’t slack over these four games. The All-Star break is around the corner. Before this series, the Braves had played 16 games in 16 days.
They can’t lose focus.
“I’ve said many times: It’s hard to win a major-league game,” Snitker said. “These are big-league players out here. They got some really good players. So it’s hard. You don’t take anything for granted – ever.”
Increased focus on building a good bullpen
During his pregame meeting with reporters Wednesday, Mets manager Buck Showalter said something interesting about the Braves.
The gist: The Mets worked Max Fried and Spencer Strider, but getting the Braves’ starters out of the game isn’t as big of a win as one might think because the Braves’ bullpen is excellent.
In spring training, Anthopoulos talked about how he’s learned the importance of bullpen depth. Snitker thinks bullpens are becoming more of a focus around the sport.
“The Cardinals, every time that (bullpen) door came open, it was just high velocity. And the Mets also,” Snitker said. “It’s a big part of the game now, the bullpen pieces. I think it’s becoming more and more apparent for these general managers, that it becomes a priority to them to stock their bullpen with four or five really good arms that they can depend on and pass the workload around.”
