When the Los Angeles Dodgers signed Tanner Scott and Kirby Yates in the offseason, these moves were seen as strengthening an already pretty good unit. With roughly a quarter of the season through, the reality is a completely different one. Yates and Scott have done what was expected out of them, but in doing so, they’ve thoroughly saved and not merely improved this unit.
Plenty has been said about the rotation’s struggles to stay healthy, currently with Tyler Glasnow, Blake Snell, and Roki Sasaki all sidelined, but the situation isn’t much different in the bullpen.
There is a pretty reasonable narrative about teams that go deep in the postseason, experiencing the effects of that in the following season, particularly on the bullpen. For the Dodgers, that unit already started 2025 with some hits, as Daniel Hudson retired following the World Series win, and both Evan Phillips and Michael Kopech started the year on the injured list.
When healthy, Kopech, Phillips, and Blake Treinen are some of the best relief pitchers in the sport, and right now, they’re all sidelined after a very limited number of appearances in 2025. Phillips and Treinen got a few innings under their belt before going on the IL.
In fact, if we compare the current bullpen to last year’s unit, which was instrumental in that title run, the only healthy arm who pitched in high-leverage spots then and now is Alex Vesia. It’s not like Los Angeles lost a lot of pieces; it’s just that everyone is hurt, basically. So, how has this bullpen gotten by, currently seventh in win probability added and third in strikeout-minus-walk rate? The answer is two-fold, with unexpected contributors and outstanding performance from their big-money signings.
We wrote a bit about Jack Dreyer a while back, who, alongside Ben Casparius has stepped up, but a big part of why they have been able to do that is the solid foundation provided by Scott and Yates. With many a high-leverage arm on the shelf, one can wonder if these new faces would’ve had the same success, thrust into a more difficult situation without that stability at the top. It took a minute before Dreyer earned his way into high-leverage spots, the same for Casparius. There is a very real scenario in which the Dodgers don’t add high-end relievers in the offseason, which didn’t seem unreasonable at the time, and this unit would be in a delicate spot right now.
The Dodgers don’t use their bullpen in a conventional manner, but as he is responsible for nine of this team’s 16 saves, Tanner Scott is, for all intents and purposes, the closer for this team. As the closer, Scott has done a phenomenal job, especially when you account for how shaky he looked early on, allowing a run in three of his first four outings.
Scott was phenomenal in 2024, but one thing he is doing differently in 2025, and it has paid off, is attacking the zone more often with his heater. Scott has upped the zone rate on his fastball from 53.8 percent to 61.4 percent, which would qualify as the highest of his career. This is one of the main causes why the left-hander has one walk this season, just one.
The memories of a walk-off loss against his former club notwithstanding, Kirby Yates has been almost as impressive. As things currently stand, Yates is two strikeouts away from tying Dustin May for second place on the team in K’s, behind Yoshinobu Yamamoto. Yates ranks second among all relievers in baseball with a 41.3 strikeout rate, making full use of that deadly splitter of his.
It was an uncharacteristic move, particularly with Scott as the Dodgers inked him to a long-term deal, but at least in the short term, it has paid off immensely for Los Angeles to have these two veterans spearheading its bullpen.