San Diego Padres: What a Kirby Yates extension might look like

As the offseason rolls on, one thing to keep in mind is the San Diego Padres interest in extending closer Kirby Yates.

We’ve heard mentions of talks between the San Diego Padres and Kirby Yates this offseason, but nothing substantial has taken place to this point.

The last we heard on this front from A.J. Preller he said something to the effect of we’ll pick up those talks once we have a better feel of what our future payroll will look like.

This feels like another situation that is being held up by the Wil Myers‘ contract.

With the Padres payroll already over $140 million for the 2020 season, Preller is really hamstrung on what else he can do.

And the same is true with Yates. Because if Preller can move Myers, that opens up more money for the 2021 and 2022 seasons as well with Myers being owed $22.5 million the next three seasons.

If Preller can move that money, and perhaps the future money owed to players like Austin Hedges and Manuel Margot, it would open up things a little more for an extension to get done with Yates.

But I most certainly think San Diego would like to work something out with the All-Star closer.

In his two-plus years with San Diego he has a 2.31 ERA in 179.1 innings with 278 strikeouts and a WHIP of 0.97.

He’s clearly become one of the best closers in all of baseball. And after signing Drew Pomeranz to a four-year deal, the Padres are hoping those two form a shutdown back-end of the bullpen for years to come.