Philadelphia Phillies Could Finish Bullpen Changes With 37-Year-Old All-Star

The Philadelphia Phillies should pursue this veteran reliever to close out their bullpen needs this offseason.

Sep 8, 2024; Arlington, Texas, USA; Texas Rangers pitcher Kirby Yates (39) pitches in the ninth inning against the Los Angeles Angels at Globe Life Field. | Tim Heitman-Imagn Images

The Philadelphia Phillies have already made a couple of changes to their bullpen this season, but could put a bow on things with a free agent reliever that likely should have signed by now.

As The Athletic continues to update their massive free agent big board as the offseason progresses, one of the top remaining players was listed as a fit for the Phillies.

Former Texas Rangers All-Star reliever Kirby Yates is still up for grabs and could make a lot of sense for Philadelphia to pursue.

The Phillies are already one of the oldest teams in baseball, so they might as well lean into it by giving someone that will turn 38 right before the season begins a new deal.

Yates may be older, but has proven that he still has plenty of juice left in the tank. Last season, for the Rangers, he posted an impressive 1.17 ERA over 61.2 innings of work and picked up 33 saves along the way.

It was his second-career All-Star campaign and best since the last time he received the honor back in the 2019 season.

While it seems unlikely that a 38-year-old would be able to repeat that same level of success, he could even regress to the 3.28 ERA he had the campaign before and still be a successful signing.

He was impressive in nearly every category. The only thing that he struggled with was walks, something that has plagued him in the latter half of his career, but he was so hard to hit that it was not really an issue to worry about.

Yates gave up just 3.4 H/9 and logged an impressive 12.4 K/9. When he wasn't handing out free bases, he was just simply shutting batters down.

Philadelphia's bullpen finished with a staff ERA of 3.94, which ranked No. 14 in MLB. It isn't awful, but it is also clear as to why it was a focus entering the offseason.

The Phillies have already found their likely new closer in Jordan Romano, but that shouldn't keep them from pursuing Yates.

Both players have their vices, one is old and the other is coming off of a 6.59 ERA campaign over 15 appearances. Given how old the team is getting and their championship window closing, it would be foolish for them to put all of their eggs into one basket.

There is no such thing as too many quality relievers, so an investment in Yates should still be on the book.