All-Star Yates has found home with Padres

Kirby Yates didn't need to look very far to find a blueprint for his future success in San Diego. Brad Hand had a locker right next to his in the Petco Park clubhouse, after all.

Yates arrived in San Diego as an April 2017 waiver claim, a castoff with an ERA over 5.00. He'd spent time with four organizations in four years, shuttling back-and-forth between the Majors and Minors with minimal success.

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Hand's story was a similar one. He was an April 2016 claim from Miami, having struggled in a starting role. In the time between Hand's claim and Yates' arrival a year later, Hand had become one of the toughest lefties in the sport.

"What was consciously in my mind at the time was: they gave him a chance,” Yates said. “Now he's pitching the seventh and eighth inning for us, and he's one of the best relievers in the game. Then he became the closer. For me, it was like: All right, they're giving this guy an opportunity, and he's pitching good. Why can't I? I should be doing the same thing."

Soon enough, Yates was. Hand assumed the closer role that summer with Yates as his primary setup man. When Hand was dealt to Cleveland last July, Yates became the dominant force at the back end of the Padres' bullpen. He owns a 1.15 ERA this season with a Major League-best 30 saves.

Given how dominant they've become, it's easy to forget that three years ago Yates and Hand were replacement-level bullpen pieces.

"We were both trying to figure out what our [careers were] going to look like," Hand said. "We got lucky enough that San Diego claimed both of us and really gave us a chance to pitch and show what we could do. We both found roles in the bullpen and ran with them."

This week, the two close friends have reunited in Cleveland for the All-Star Game. Their success is a testament to the Padres' efforts on two fronts: the pro scouting department saw the upside, and the coaching staff helped make that upside shine through.

In that regard, their stories are similar. Hand had been discouraged from throwing his slider in Miami, because, well, it wasn't very good at the time. He arrived in San Diego, and the tone changed. The Padres asked him to throw it more. As he tinkered with the pitch, it went from OK to good to great. Then they asked him to throw it a lot more.

In this way, Yates’ path differed. By the end of the 2016 season, he had already begun to develop his split-finger fastball. But the Angels told Yates to use his slider as his primary weapon instead. After one rough outing, Yates was designated for assignment that April.

“I understood why they had to do it because they were in a roster crunch,” Yates said Monday during All-Star media availability. “But it was frustrating, and I was hoping a team would claim me because I did feel like I was a different pitcher at that time and that I could be successful in the big leagues. So I’m thrilled the Padres claimed me.”

But the Padres had different ideas for how Yates should be pitching. They'd scouted him the previous season and into Spring Training and were enamored with the potential in his fastball/splitter combo. Unlike Hand's slider, the pitch didn't need much tweaking. The organization felt it was already elite. Yates just needed to understand how good it was. He needed to throw it.

"Both of them were strongly encouraged to use [those pitches]," said Padres manager Andy Green. "But Brad developed his here. … Kirby already had the split. Now, [he’s] got better command of it and got a better feel for it here. But he came to us with that pitch, and he was strongly encouraged to throw it."

Today, Hand's slider and Yates' splitter are two of the best pitches in the sport. One is a breaking pitch from the left side. The other is an offspeed weapon from the right. But the effect is the same -- opponents are hitting .145 against Hand's slider and .141 against Yates' splitter.

"They're two completely different pitchers, but it was fun to see them on that [same path]," said bullpen coach Doug Bochtler. "They started to have some success, got on a roll and finally realized, 'Wow, I'm pretty good.' When you take the mound with that 'I'm pretty good' mentality, you're going to be better than you were before.”

This time a year ago, Yates and Hand shared a bullpen. They golfed together. They played Fortnite together. They were catch partners. Both had clear All-Star cases, but only Hand got the nod. Yates watched from his native Hawaii as Hand pitched a scoreless inning.

Two days later, Hand headed to Cleveland in the deal that sent Francisco Mejia, an exciting catching prospect, to San Diego. Such is the nature of baseball that Yates didn't get to see Hand again until Spring Training this year.

Yates won't be watching from Hawaii this time. Instead, he had an entourage of 15 family members jet from the Aloha State to Los Angeles for Sunday's first-half finale at Dodger Stadium. After Yates had recorded his third save in as many days, they all traveled to Cleveland together.

“It’s just crazy that you can go through so much and then all of the sudden you have success to be an All-Star,” Yates said. “It’s pretty cool to be able to say I’m an All-Star. I take pride in that.”

Yates spent Monday soaking in the festivities. Then, presuming his arm feels OK after a heavy workload this weekend, he will probably pitch a high-leverage situation late in the All-Star Game. Hand will, too. Given where they both stood when they arrived in San Diego, that's nothing short of remarkable.

"He was designated, and now he's a three-time All-Star," Yates said. "When you're also a guy who's going team-to-team, bouncing around, and you see somebody else in your situation have success, you try to feed off that."

Yates sure did. And it earned him a trip to the Midsummer Classic.