{"id":911019,"date":"2026-09-27T01:00:12","date_gmt":"2026-09-27T01:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/911019\/"},"modified":"2026-09-27T01:00:12","modified_gmt":"2026-09-27T01:00:12","slug":"kirby-yates-makes-first-career-start-then-retires-after-12-mlb-seasons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/911019\/","title":{"rendered":"Kirby Yates makes first career start, then retires after 12 MLB seasons"},"content":{"rendered":"

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By Canadian Press on September 26, 2026.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\"\"Pittsburgh Pirates starting pitcher Kirby Yates, right foreground, is hugged by a teammate after being taken out of the game during the second inning of a baseball game against the Detroit Tigers, Saturday, Sept. 26, 2026, in Detroit. (AP Photo\/Jose Juarez)<\/p>\n

DETROIT (AP) \u2014 Two-time All-Star reliever Kirby Yates says he is retiring after making his first start Saturday in a 12-year big league career.<\/p>\n

The 39-year-old Yates, who went undrafted out of junior college, shook hands with teammates and plate umpire Laz Diaz while leaving the field after pitching 1 2\/3 innings for the Pittsburgh Pirates. He started opposite Detroit Tigers right-hander Justin Verlander<\/a>, who was also making his last appearance before retiring.<\/p>\n

It was Yates\u2019 518th appearance since debuting with Tampa Bay in June 2014, and he confirmed after the game that it was his last.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is it,\u201d he said. \u201cJust didn\u2019t really want to say anything publicly before, until the end. It was great. It was an awesome day. Really cool thing to kind of be a part of, especially what\u2019s going on on the other side. Seeing emotions on both sides was something you don\u2019t forget. It was a good day.\u201d<\/p>\n

This was the third time both starting pitchers made their final regular-season appearance in the same game after at least 12 seasons. Hall of Famers Christy Mathewson and Mordecai Brown did it in 1916, and Paul Derringer and Vern Kennedy did it in 1945, according to MLB.com.<\/p>\n

Yates led the majors with 41 saves for San Diego in 2019. He finishes 32-29 with 101 career saves, including three this season for the Los Angeles Angels.<\/p>\n

The right-hander pitched for the Rays, Yankees, Angels, Padres, Braves, Rangers, Dodgers and Pirates. He was an All-Star in 2019 with San Diego and 2024 with Texas. Yates was left off the Dodgers\u2019 postseason roster last season but did receive a ring as part of the World Series championship celebration.<\/p>\n

Yates was born in Hawaii and went to high school there. He was selected by the Boston Red Sox in the 26th round of the 2005 amateur draft out of high school, but did not sign. Four years later, he signed with Tampa Bay after going undrafted out of Yavapai College in Arizona. <\/p>\n

Despite compiling a 3.19 ERA in 46 outings this season, Yates says he knows it\u2019s time to step away.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t have anything left, let\u2019s put it that way,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019ve been running on fumes here for a while.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

\n See AP\u2019s full MLB coverage here<\/a>\n <\/p>\n

The Associated Press<\/p>\n

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<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Canadian Press on September 26, 2026. Pittsburgh Pirates starting pitcher Kirby Yates, right foreground, is hugged by…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":911020,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[49,48,462,82],"class_list":["post-911019","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/911019","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=911019"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/911019\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/911020"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=911019"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=911019"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=911019"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}