Sources - Dodgers agree to $13M deal with reliever Kirby Yates - ESPN

Right-handed reliever Kirby Yates and the Los Angeles Dodgers are in agreement on a one-year, $13 million contract, sources told ESPN, continuing the Dodgers' construction of a superteam that will enter the 2025 season as heavy World Series favorites.

Yates, 37, was one of the best relievers in baseball last year, posting a 1.17 ERA in 61⅔ innings, striking out 85 and walking 27 while saving 33 games for Texas. He joins a Dodgers bullpen that already added closer Tanner Scott, re-signed fireman Blake Treinen and returns right-hander Michael Kopech and left-hander Alex Vesia.

Add that to the team's starting-pitching depth — Shohei Ohtani, free agent signing Blake Snell, right-handers Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Tyler Glasnow, Tony Gonsolin, Dustin May and Landon Knack, and the likely return of left-hander Clayton Kershaw — and the Dodgers have the deepest pitching staff in baseball as they look to become the first repeat World Series champions in a quarter-century.

A late bloomer who didn't crack a big league roster until he was 27, Yates has nevertheless fashioned an impressive career in the majors, saving 95 games and making a pair of All-Star teams, including last year.

Yates, who can earn $500,000 bonuses if he reaches 50- and 55-appearance thresholds, puts up gaudy strikeout numbers despite lacking a high-octane fastball. His go-to pitch is a devastating split-fingered fastball and his 12.5 strikeouts per nine innings ranks sixth all time among pitchers with at least 400 innings, behind only Aroldis Chapman, Josh Hader, Edwin Diaz, Craig Kimbrel and former Dodgers closer Kenley Jansen.

The $13 million salary will push the Dodgers' offseason spending to more than $450 million guaranteed, with the free agent signings of Snell,