Former MLB Saves Leader Kirby Yates Signs Free Agent Deal

A two-time All-Star, including as recently as 2024 when he recorded 33 saves, Kirby Yates was the last true closer available on the free agent market. He has now signed on with the Los Angeles Angels.

Angels, RHP Kirby Yates reportedly agree to 1-year deal, per multiple reports including @MLBNetwork insider @JonHeyman. pic.twitter.com/7RtBpjO6lB
— MLB (@MLB) December 30, 2025

It's not often that the Angels sign away a player from their more famous LA cousins, the Dodgers, but Yates will head down the I-5 to Orange County on a one-year deal worth $5 million. It is pending a physical.

The 38-year-old was on the IL multiple times in 2025, missing time with assorted maladies like right hamstring strains and lower back pain. That led to a disappointing season with the Dodgers, where he finished with a 5.23 ERA. The previous year with the Texas Rangers, Yates posted a ridiculous 1.17 ERA on the way to 33 saves, an All-Star berth, and even an 8th-place finish in Cy Young balloting.

He had established himself as an elite closer back in 2019, when he recorded a major league best 41 saves with the San Diego Padres, and a 1.19 ERA. But serious injuries wiped out almost all of the next three seasons for Yates, until he re-established his dominant stuff in 2023 with the Atlanta Braves.

For the Angels, they had a hole at the back end of their bullpen after Kenley Jansen left in free agency this winter, after recording 29 saves in his one and only year there. Yates will now step into that vacated spot.

Yates has 98 career saves and a 3.36 ERA, while striking out 12.4 batters per nine innings.