ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — During his long road back from his second Tommy John surgery, Kirby Yates looked at pitchers in similar situations. One was Boston’s Chris Sale, who also underwent Tommy John surgery. Another was teammate Michael Soroka, who spent an extended period away from baseball recovering from Achilles tendon injuries.
Yates and Soroka have chatted about their situations, and landed on the same point.
“It’s tough because you expect yourself to be exactly where you left off, but reality is, it’s not there yet,” Yates said. “It doesn’t mean it’s not coming, it’s just not there yet. And at some point, you keep kind of chugging along, you’re hoping that it’s going to come back. That’s kind of been the consensus through everything.”
And through everything, he needed to remain optimistic, which is why he studied Sale, Soroka and others in the first place. Generally, Yates said, most pitchers in his situation begin to turn the corner when they gain more innings. Many followed similar paths.
It gave him hope that he could one day be elite again.
“You try and stay positive, and you try and find things that you can feel good about on a daily basis because if you kind of harp on the negative things all the time, you tend to be a negative person,” Yates said. “And I don’t like being like that. I think the No. 1 thing is trying to find ways to get better, and try and find positivity in everything. It’s just one of those building stones. You just kind of try and find something to help yourself and understand, ‘I have to get better, and it is possible to get better.’”
As he struggled early in the season, Yates – who felt good physically – knew he needed time. He looked at the bigger picture.
In an interview Monday at Cleveland’s Progressive Field, Yates reflected on his recent success. Even after allowing two runs Tuesday, he still had a 3.31 ERA. And before those runs, he had only surrendered one earned run over 8-2/3 innings, perhaps the best stretch of his Braves career.
The explanation for this is rather simple: Yates has gotten more innings and consistent work to further separate himself from the procedure.
“If you’re going to build a house and you build it in two days, it’s probably not going to sustain very long. You know, what I mean?” Yates said. “It’s kind of like anything else. Anything that is there to sustain, it takes a little while to build it. Even in the beginning of the year, I got off to a bad start. But I think I’ve also been able to kind of build from that and kind of keep getting better and better and better.
“As bad as it was probably on the outside, for me, it felt like I was getting better. It probably didn’t always look like that. But I felt like I was trending in the right direction, and I was able to kind of put some things together that were probably gonna help me in the future as, like (where) we are now.”
There’s another big change: Yates feels like his splitter is much better than it was even a month ago.
“I feel like when I rip off a good one, it’s a swing and miss now, as opposed to a weak contact or a ground ball,” Yates said. “In the past, when I ripped a good one, it was usually a swing and miss.”
Since June 14, Yates has thrown 77 splitters. Batters have whiffed on 15 of them. That means batters are swinging and missing on almost 20% of his splitters over his past nine outings.
The difference in that splitter?
“I think the sharpness and how it breaks, and when it’s breaking,” Yates said. “If it breaks early, hitters can adjust, change their swing, kind of nick it or keep their hands back long enough to kind of put a good swing on it. Last few times out, it’s been a little later, it’s been sharper. It comes out looking like a fastball for a long time, and (it looks like) they’re going to get that fastball and then it moves, and they don’t have time to adjust. That’s kind of how it turns into a swing and miss.”
Credit: Jason Getz / Jason.Getz@ajc.com
Credit: Jason Getz / Jason.Getz@ajc.com
In 2021, Yates underwent Tommy John surgery. “It’s odd because it’s the same exact thing, honestly, first and second time,” Yates said. He still had to teach himself how to throw a ball again. It took a while to feel like himself.
But because he paid attention to others who traveled the same road, he knew this: Their stuff returned. Their command was the last thing to come back. His experience has been similar. Now, his command is returning.
“I think I’ve gotten to a spot where I’m pretty confident in what I’m doing,” Yates said. “I have the ability to kind of go out there and execute pitches, and not kind of try and see where I’m at and figure it out. I’ve gotten to a point where I can put a plan together and go out and attack hitters pretty similar to what I did in the past.”
Since reporting to spring training this year, Yates has said he’s healthy. His season, however, did not start well. He allowed four earned runs over his first 7-2/3 innings. But he’s posted a 2.88 ERA across 25 innings since April 27.
Braves manager Brian Snitker understands baseball is difficult. This is one of his best traits. He has the feel to stick with guys through tough times. He lets them come out of it.
He did this with Yates. Snitker acknowledged it’s difficult to be away from baseball, a game built on rhythm.
“You gotta have a lot of patience with guys,” Snitker said, “and just keep running them out there.”
Credit: Jason Getz / Jason.Getz@ajc.com
Credit: Jason Getz / Jason.Getz@ajc.com
But did Yates ever fear the Braves might designate him for assignment if he didn’t turn the corner?
“I’ve been around long enough to understand what’s going on,” Yates said. “You’re on a good team, and you hope they don’t go in that direction. But reality is reality. But in my personal opinion, I didn’t think that I was gonna keep pitching like that the entire year. The way I feel right now is definitely the way that I thought I could pitch like and I could get back to.”
On one hand, Yates has proved himself right. He feels validated and rewarded for his hard work.
On the other, he knows he has a lot of season left and wants to keep it rolling.
“So it’s good to be sitting here with the ability to feel confident enough to go out and I can help my team win every day as opposed to not being able to do that,” Yates said. “That’s the thing that’s the most frustrating is that when you sit in a clubhouse like this and you’re on a good team and I don’t get a chance to help everybody anymore, and that was probably the biggest frustrating thing.”
