This former Yankees pitcher could be underrated free agent target

This low-cost free agent has already played for the Yankees and could be a key addition.

New York Yankees fans saw how the loss of Tommy Kahnle affected the bullpen in 2020. The year prior, the same could be said for Dellin Betances, who pitched 0.2 innings before going down for the year with a partially-torn Achilles, which followed a battle with shoulder issues.

Now, it’s evident the Yankees need some more bullpen help for the 2021 season because Adam Ottavino can no longer be trusted and manager Aaron Boone cannot keep overworking Chad Green, Zack Britton and Aroldis Chapman. Kahnle won’t be back since he’ll miss all of 2021 as he recovers from Tommy John surgery.

And if we’re talking about making low-cost additions in free agency, why shouldn’t the front office target former Yankee Kirby Yates, whose value likely took a hit after he needed season-ending surgery to repair an elbow issue (though it wasn’t Tommy John and required only a six-week timetable for recovery)?

Remember Yates in pinstripes? It wasn’t pretty. Back in 2016, after being acquired in a trade with the Indians, the right-hander appeared in 41 games and registered a 5.23 ERA, 1.45 WHIP across 41.1 innings of work. But two years later, he became one of the best relievers in the game.

His resurgence began in 2017 with the Padres, when he maintained a 3.72 ERA and 1.10 WHIP in 61 games. Not bad. But his next two seasons featured an incredible 1.67 ERA and 0.91 WHIP with 53 saves (a league-leading 41 in 2019) and 191 strikeouts across 125 games (123.2 innings). Then, he was limited to just six games in 2020 before his elbow started barking.

Now, he’ll be entering his age-34 season coming off surgery, and the Yankees can stand to take a risk on him, especially if they’re not going to be spending big outside of DJ LeMahieu.

And, of course, it’d be great if we can avoid having him go to the Red Sox and giving them good production on a cheap deal. Boston deserves to lose money after what they did to their fanbase this past offseason.

The fact of the matter is Yates reinvented himself since moving to San Diego, introducing a devastating split finger, which he’s thrown nearly 40% of the time since the start of 2018. Additionally, his fastball velocity has largely remained in the 93-94 range, so there have been no signs of decline there — it’s actually mostly increased or stayed the same.

Yates ditched his slider and curveball for the most part and attacks hitters with his fastball-split finger combo, and we’ve seen the results. Adding him into the bullpen mix and being able to deploy him from innings 6-9 will give Boone another flexible option who can handle high-pressure situations, and it could be a lot cheaper than adding Liam Hendriks or Blake Treinen.

This free agent class is ripe with options. Yates is one we’re not talking about enough.

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