Archive for Kirby Yates

Prior to Thursday’s game in Colorado, fantasy owners may have had few outward reasons to be concerned about Kirby Yates. Since becoming the Padres’ closer after the July 19 trade of Brad Hand to the Indians, he had not blown a save and tallied 20 strikeouts in 11.2 innings. Yates finally got that first blown save on Thursday, when he gave up Ian Desmond’s two-run walk-off homer. Given that it was at Coors Field, owners may be willing to forgive Yates.

While the 31-year-old is not among the most highly-owned closers, not many of his current owners are sitting him. Yates is 59 percent owned in CBS leagues but benched in 14 percent of leagues. On Fantrax, he has a 57 percent ownership rate but is being sat in only 8 percent of leagues.
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Between Paul Molitor‘s recent comments and the fact that Matt Magill and Taylor Rogers pitched the ninth inning in the Twins’ most recent save situation, we can be assured that Trevor Hildenberger won’t be hogging up all of the save opportunities in Minnesota. Hildenberger pitched the ninth inning on Sunday with a one-run lead against the Tigers, though because he got the final out of the previous inning just before Eddie Rosario’s go-ahead solo homer, he was pitching for a win and not a save. The situation was slightly different, but Hildenberger followed his recent pattern of creating a little stress. He began the ninth inning by allowing a Victor Reyes single, and two batters later, Reyes got into scoring position by way of a walk to Jose Iglesias. The drama ended there, as Hildenberger got the final two outs.
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With Thursday morning’s trade of Brad Hand and Adam Cimber to the Indians for Francisco Mejia, we have our first big reliever deal of the second half. While we now have to wait and see how Terry Francona balances his usage of Hand, Cody Allen and, eventually, Andrew Miller, we have had months to consider how Andy Green might deal with save situations once the Padres dealt their closer away.
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If you had been stashing Anthony Swarzak or Ryan Buchter in the hopes that they would inherit some saves, this has not been a good week for you. On Tuesday, the White Sox dealt Swarzak to the Brewers for 25-year-old outfield prospect Ryan Cordell. This came the day after Swarzak teased fantasy owners by notching his first career save, preserving a 3-1 win over the Cubs. Swarzak now figures to inherit a setup role for the Brewers.

On Monday, Buchter joined Padres’ ex-closer Brandon Maurer and Trevor Cahill in getting dealt to the Royals for Matt Strahm, Travis Wood and 18-year-old second baseman Esteury Ruiz. Maurer will likely set up Kelvin Herrera, while Buchter will probably slot into a suddenly star-studded Royals’ pen in a middle relief role. However, their departure from San Diego creates all sorts of new closer possibilities. In the short run, Brad Hand figures to be the frontrunner to get saves (in fact, he got one Wednesday night against the Mets), but he, too, is a candidate to get traded to a team that needs to fortify the backend of its bullpen.
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