The Pittsburgh Pirates can do their best to ensure Kirby Yates hasn’t thrown his last pitch in MLB by staging a big September comeback.

With less than three weeks in baseball’s regular season, however, the Pirates began the weekend 4.5 games behind the San Diego Padres for the National Legaue’s third and final wild-card berth.

Yates, 39, isn’t merely racing the clock to come off the injured list before the Pirates’ season ends. In a new interview with MLB.com, he conceded the clock is winding down on his career, too.

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“(My family) wants Dad home as much as they possibly can,” he told Pirates beat writer Aiden Stepansky. “So, I think we’re getting to a point where we’ve had conversations before; it kind of hits you different when they tell you they’d rather have you home. So as a father, when you hear that it kind of gets you pretty good in the heart.

“And there’s decisions to make here in the near future. I’m pretty positive in what I’m gonna do.”

Regardless of whether Yates retires after the season, the majority of his playing career is already in the books.

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Beginning with his 2014 debut with the Tampa Bay Rays, Yates is 32-29 with a 3.36 ERA and 101 saves in 516 major-league games. He’s worn the uniform of eight teams: the Pirates, Rays, Los Angeles Angels, Los Angeles Dodgers, Texas Rangers, San Diego Padres, Atlanta Braves, and New York Yankees.

Yates helped the Dodgers win the 2025 World Series, and made two All-Star teams: in 2019 with the Padres and 2024 with the Rangers. He collected downballot Cy Young Award votes after each of those two seasons.

The Toronto Blue Jays signed Yates prior to the 2021 season, but he underwent Tommy John surgery in March of that year, ending his season prematurely.

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Not only did Yates recover from the elbow ligament-replacement procedure at age 34, he went on to pitch another five seasons. He signed a $5 million contract with the Angels as a free agent in January, and was traded to Pittsburgh at the Aug. 3 deadline.

Currently on the injured list with pain in his right shoulder, Yates would love nothing more than to end his career with another comeback — and perhaps another postseason run.

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