Kirby Yates’ 2025 struggles centered around his signature pitch, a splitter. Jayne Kamin-Oncea / Imagn Images

The Los Angeles Angels agreed to terms on a one-year deal with two-time All-Star Kirby Yates, adding another veteran bounce-back candidate to their bullpen, a league source confirmed to The Athletic on Tuesday.

Yates’ deal is pending a physical. He would be the Angels’ latest veteran reliever signing, joining the club’s additions of Jordan Romano and Drew Pomeranz this winter. They will bolster a group that lost closer Kenley Jansen to the Detroit Tigers. Even with Jansen, the Angels had the third-worst bullpen ERA in the majors (4.86) in 2025. The deal was first reported by 7News Boston.

The 38-year-old Yates is coming off a disappointing season with the Los Angeles Dodgers, where he produced his worst ERA ever (5.23) for a season in which he appeared in at least 50 games. He was shut down in September and didn’t appear on a postseason roster during the Dodgers’ repeat title run.

Yates’ 2025 struggles centered around his signature pitch. The right-hander rode his splitter to elite production through his 30s, earning his first All-Star bid at 32 years old with the San Diego Padres in 2019. He used the pitch to generate elite swing and miss and suppress hard contact, while making up for whatever he would lose in fastball velocity as he aged. His fastball took a step back in 2025, with his 92.8 mph average being the lowest of his career.

The bigger issue was his lack of feel for his splitter: opposing batters hit .267 and had a .520 slugging percentage against the pitch in 2025, and Yates struggled to find an answer for the pitch’s ineffectiveness. He hypothesized in July that at least some of it had to do with the makeup of the baseballs themselves, altering the pitch’s movement.

“It’s a pitch that — I’ve never really struggled with it,” Yates said then. “I wouldn’t call before a struggle, but sometimes it would just be off, but never for a sustained period of time. It’s probably like an outing or two… (Right now), I don’t have the feel for it. Haven’t had the feel for it.”

Perhaps a familiar voice can help click things into place. The Angels hired Mike Maddux from the Texas Rangers to be their pitching coach this offseason. Maddux worked with Yates while with the Rangers in 2024, when Yates was named an All-Star for the second time and had a 1.17 ERA in 61 appearances while allowing hitters to bat just .114 against his splitter.

Fabian Ardaya is a staff writer covering the Los Angeles Dodgers for The Athletic. He previously spent three seasons covering the crosstown Los Angeles Angels for The Athletic. He graduated from Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication in May 2017 after growing up in a Phoenix-area suburb. Follow Fabian on Twitter @FabianArdaya