Baseball’s major awards aren’t handed out until after the conclusion of the World Series, but Kirby Yates can add one piece of hardware to his mantle:
Baseball Digest/eBay Relief Pitcher of the Year.
Yates, the majors’ saves leader with 41, edged the Brewers’ Josh Hader, 29-26, in voting. The Padres’ 32-year-old closer pulled in eight first-place votes, Hader collected three and the Athletes’ Liam Hendriks and Aroldis Chapman each had two.
Yates converted 41 of 44 saves while posting a 1.19 ERA, the lowest among all relievers and a new career-best.
The first-time All-Star also set new career standards with 101 strikeouts, strikeouts per nine innings (15.