Kirby Yates' Toronto Blue Jays career was derailed before it started on Tuesday with news that he will "most likely" need Tommy John surgery for the second time in his career.
Now, a new report from Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic is shedding some light on the risks the Blue Jays took by bringing Yates in -- risks which the Atlanta Braves seemingly balked from.
According to Rosenthal, "the Braves declined to finalize a one-year, $9 million agreement with the free-agent closer," while the Blue Jays "reduced a proposed one-year, $8.5 million guarantee for Yates to $5.5 million," due to concerns after his physical.
Yates made only six appearances for the San Diego Padres last season before undergoing elbow surgery to remove bone spurs in August, but was said to be fully healthy entering free agency. On Tuesday, when announcing Yates' injury, Blue Jays general manager Ross Atkins acknowledged the team knew of the concerns before signing the soon-to-be 34-year-old in January.
“Our take is that he was healthy, he had no pain, no symptoms whatsoever," Atkins said, according to Sportsnet's Shi Davidi. "It would be better to have a medical expert say chronic versus acute or acute on chronic. But this is part of it with someone that was coming off of a procedure… Just part of it that didn’t work out for the Blue Jays this year.”
The Braves, according to Rosenthal, offered Yates a contract with a very low salary and incentives based on health that would raise the deal to $9 million after his physical raised concerns. At that time, Yates then engaged in contract talks with the Blue Jays, who after raising their own concerns were able to negotiate Yates down to a contract with $5.5 million in guaranteed salary and another $4.5 million in incentives.
