Yates unfazed by season of uncertainty

SAN DIEGO -- Everything was building steadily toward a 2020 payoff for Kirby Yates.

An April 2017 waiver claim, Yates became a valuable weapon in the Padres’ bullpen that year. He took over the closer role the following summer, and in 2019 he elevated his game to new heights, leading the Majors with 41 saves and posting a 1.19 ERA. Yates earned his first trip to the All-Star Game and was named to the inaugural All-MLB Team.

It set the stage for a huge 2020, a contract year for Yates. He figured to be a key cog in the Padres' long-awaited push for playoff contention, then he would be rewarded financially for his efforts in the winter.

Those 2020 plans have been muddled because of the COVID-19 pandemic. And while plenty of ballplayers have had their lives upended by the coronavirus, it came at a particularly inopportune time for Yates.

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"Nothing I can really do about it," said Yates, ever the pragmatist. "I can sit here and complain to you guys, whine about everything. What good does that do? ... I'm not the only person affected by this. It's affecting everybody."

Yates is perhaps uniquely qualified to deal with career setbacks. He went undrafted out of Yavapai College in 2008, and he bounced around four different organizations over four seasons before landing in San Diego.

Those tribulations have given Yates plenty of perspective. So, too, has his wife's battle with epilepsy. She spent a few days in the hospital last week for scheduled testing, Yates said, meaning he was a late arrival at Padres camp.

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Yates passed intake testing protocols on Monday, and he returned to the Petco Park mound Tuesday night for an inning during an intrasquad game. After 3 1/2 months off, Yates said he felt "giddy" upon his arrival at the ballpark. He also said that, given his wife’s condition, he feels completely safe with the current protocols.

"I feel like we're safe, and I feel like this is safe," Yates said. "Based on the alternative, this is the only place where I can come and be around 30 guys and know that everybody has been tested here in the last 48 hours."

Yates spent the past few months working out in Arizona, where he moved before the 2017 season. He's generally not one to ponder his future, but without a nightly game to play, Yates said he began to consider what free agency might be like.

The Padres and Yates engaged in contract extension talks during the offseason, but nothing ever materialized. It's unclear whether the two sides were ever close. He has expressed a desire to return to San Diego, but it seems likeliest that he hits an uncertain free-agent market this winter as one of the top bullpen arms available.

"Very simply, I just don't know," Yates said. "I have thought about it a lot. Again, I don't really control that. I do in a sense, but teams have to want you and people have to want to employ you.

“If the Padres want to move on from me, that's fine. I would like to stay here -- I've made that clear. But it's weird to be thinking about free agency right now because there is some uncertainty."

With baseball on the horizon, Yates can finally put those free-agency thoughts on the back burner again. He's slated to anchor one of the deepest bullpens in baseball in 2020. In a shortened season, that might come with extra responsibility.

"There are [more] innings that will fall onto the bullpen," said Yates. "And with doing that, there's going to be more guys throwing multiple innings. If I'm one of them, I'm one of them. Every team is going to be different. But I think we are probably more equipped than anybody to face this and to deal with this with the arms that we have."

Perhaps none more valuable than Yates.

“He’s been as dominant as anybody in the game,” said manager Jayce Tingler. “Being able to have his leadership and somebody you believe in at the back end to be able to close down those tight ballgames, it’s truly a blessing.”