GLENDALE, Ariz. – For Kirby Yates, it was a pitch. For Tanner Scott, it was a person.
When the Dodgers signed the two as free agents this winter, they added a pair of elite relievers to their bullpen. But both were late arrivals to that status.
For the first four years of his big-league career, Yates had posted a 4.78 ERA for four teams (the Yankees, Rays, Angels and Padres) with an unsightly 1.30 WHIP. He turned 30 in spring 2017 and things started to change.
“I think the obvious answer would be the split, learning that,” Yates said, agreeing that his career could be divided into two chapters – before he added a split-fingered fastball and after.
“It just gave me something that complemented my fastball. Gave me a swing-and-miss pitch.”
Yates had picked up the pitch during his 2016 season with the Yankees. He brought it with him to spring training with the Angels in 2017 but didn’t pitch well, made just one regular-season appearance with the Angels and was waived.
The Padres claimed Yates and his turnaround began.
“I took that (splitter) into Anaheim that spring camp, I was throwing it and I felt confident about it. I felt it was going to work,” Yates said. “I didn’t have the best spring but when I went to Triple-A that year early, I started figuring it out a little bit – how to throw it and how to get consistent movement.
“When I ended up in San Diego, I got with (pitching coach) Darren Balsley. He really kind of taught me how to do it – where my hand should be at release and all of that. He just helped make it consistent and got it better and better. I think the more I threw it, the more comfortable I got, the more I could command it, the more I understood I could get a consistent break if I do these few things. It kind of took off from there.”
Yates has thrown his splitter more than 40 percent of the time since then. He missed the 2021 season following Tommy John surgery. But in six seasons armed with the splitter, he has been one of the most difficult relievers in baseball to face. His ERA since 2018 is 2.21 ERA with a 1.00 WHIP and 13 strikeouts per nine innings.
He made some other changes as he entered his 30s that were also factors.
On the 2016 Yankees team with veterans like CC Sabathia and Brian McCann, he had started to see what it took to be a successful major-leaguer over the long haul.
“Watching the way they prepared, the way they went about their business, it made me realize that I probably needed to make some changes,” said Yates, a native of Hawaii. “I moved away from Kauai and bought a house in Arizona so I could work out a lot more, be more dedicated and disciplined.”
He worked out with Alex Cobb who became a split-finger tutor. He became a father. And he became a more committed professional – studying hitters, building his own scouting reports and doing everything he could so that he could “go to sleep at night” knowing that he had given it his all.
“To abandon what you’ve been doing for six, seven years in pro ball and start a new pitch, you’ve got to believe that the other way doesn’t work anymore,” he recalled. “I was ‘Look, if I stay with the fastball-slider, I’m going to be average at best.’ That wasn’t good enough for me. I wanted more.”
Scott was also a fastball-slider pitcher as he fashioned a 4.61 ERA and robust 1.56 WHIP while walking 5.8 per nine innings over his first six big-league seasons with the Orioles and Marlins.
What changed in 2023? “Everything,” Scott said.
But not his pitch mix. Scott credits Marlins’ pitching coach Mel Stottlemyre Jr. and bullpen coach Wellington Cepeda with his makeover.
“They helped me become what I am now,” Scott said. “It made things a lot easier in a hard sport.”
Their advice to Scott was as basic as pitching advice can get – throw strikes.
“I guess throughout my years with Baltimore and then when I first got over to Miami everyone was telling me to do certain things instead of what I would say is ‘Keep it simple, stupid,’” Scott said. “It was always, ‘Hey, do this. Hey, try this. Hey, why not this? Hey, let’s try that.’
“I would try it and then I’d be, ‘What the heck am I doing?’ then toss it. Then when I got to Miami, they were, ‘What are you comfortable doing?’ and I would say, ‘This.’ And they would say, ‘Let’s run with it.’”
That simple change turned Scott into one of the best relievers in the game – still throwing just a fastball and a slider, but now throwing them for strikes. Over the past two seasons, he has a 2.02 ERA, a 1.05 WHIP and 3.6 strikeouts per nine innings. That earned him a four-year, $72 million contract from the Dodgers this past winter.
It’s the pitcher he always thought he could be, Scott said.
“I mean, yeah,” he said. “Everyone that plays the game wants to be the best at what they do. Yeah, I always believed.”
FREEMAN FIRST
Freddie Freeman played first base in Sunday’s game against the Chicago White Sox, his first defensive action of the spring as he recovers from offseason ankle surgery.
“We’ve done every box (in workouts). It’s just now getting out there and having all the plays happen in a game situation,” Freeman said.
At the plate, Freeman has looked ready to go. He hit home runs in back-to-back games this weekend.
“My swing has felt good. Even when I got here and even when I was hitting before I got here, I felt good,” Freeman said. “I was replaying my fix that I did going into the World Series and made sure I thought about it and was able to carry it over. I’ve been hitting really good in the cages and been good in games so far.”