ST. PETERSBURG — It was a ruse, the phone call from Mike Sandoval to Kirby Yates in the early morning of June 7, 2014. The landlord of the apartment complex where Yates was staying in Durham had not called the Durham Bulls complaining one of their players was throwing a wild party as Sandoval told Yates. But how else was Bulls manager Charlie Montoyo going to find out which apartment Yates was renting?
Montoyo was about to deliver the biggest news of Yates’ professional career, and he didn’t want to do it over the phone.
Yates, in his second season with the Bulls, entered the organization as an undrafted free agent and fought his way up the chain.