Kirby Yates retires, ending a season in Pittsburgh that looked nothing like a farewell tour

Yates announced his retirement after posting a 0.69 ERA across 13 appearances for the Pirates this season — the best mark on the staff by a wide margin. For a reliever who spent years battling injuries and working his way back to relevance, it was a quietly remarkable final act.

The timing is awkward for Pittsburgh, which finishes 78-79 and already eliminated, but the loss still registers. Yates was the one arm in that bullpen operating at a genuinely elite level, and the depth chart behind him — Yohan Ramírez, Carmen Mlodzinski, Gregory Soto — reflects a group that is functional rather than dominant. The Pirates close out five games without their sharpest reliever available.

The broader picture for Pittsburgh heading into the offseason is a bullpen that will need attention. Yates's production this year was an outlier on that staff, and it won't be easy to replace.