Kirby Yates’ elbow was reconstructed as a draft-and-follow prospect more than 10 years before the Padres found him on the waiver wire. He’d made his was to the majors as an undrafted free agent. San Diego was his third stop in a little more than a year.
Indeed, very little about his career arc pointed toward Yates saving a franchise record 30 games before the all-star break on this date — July 7 — last year.
“He was left for dead,” fellow Padres reliever Craig Stammen said then, “by everyone except himself.”
And the Padres.