2024 review: Ryan Yarbrough

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The left-handed bulk reliever also added short relief to his duties, and led LA bullpen in innings pitched despite getting traded to the Blue Jays in July.

Ryan Yarbrough's Dodgers tenure lasted from trade deadline to trade deadline. The 2024 version of the left-hander included a role of not only his usual longman work but even sometimes pitching in short bursts, depending on need.

Down the stretch in 2023, every Yarbrough outing with the Dodgers came on at least three days of rest, and his only appearance shorter than three innings was a two-inning game. But this year, the left-handed pitched one inning or less eight times, and had seven other appearances of four or five outs.

That was in addition to his usual bulk outings mixed in. He pitched on back-to-back days three times with the Dodgers, the first such games of his career, and even had overlapping stretches of pitching three times in four days in July.

"Ryan Yarbrough took on so many different challenges this year, and what he did, how he went about it, I have so much respect for him alone," Alex Vesia, Yarbrough's former bullpen teammate, said in October. "You're in the bullpen and you're going to go long. There's just a different level of maturity, respect, everything. To take the ball like he did, and what he did was crazy."

To give you an idea of Yarbrough's total workload, he led the Dodgers bullpen in innings pitched on the season and wasn't even on the team for the final two months.

"That's so valuable to a team that, like, nobody understands," Vesia added. "Obviously the big names, that's great, but there are other guys that are like glue, that keep the team together and performing at a high level."

Yarbrough in his 67⅓ innings put up a 3.74 ERA, all of them in relief. His quest for 100 relief innings shifted cities at the trade deadline. He was designated for assignment when the Dodgers acquired Amed Rosario, then Yarbrough one day later was traded to Toronto for center fielder Kevin Kiermaier.

With the Blue Jays, Yarbrough put up a 2.01 ERA in 31⅓ innings, coming only four outs shy of 100 innings. Coupled with his 118... innings in relief as a rookie with the Rays in 2018 (as part of 147⅓ total innings), Yarbrough has the two highest relief inning totals in the last 18 seasons.

2024 particulars

Age: 32

Stats: 3.74 ERA, 5.17 FIP, 1 save, 32 G, 67⅓ IP, 25 BB, 39 K with Dodgers

Salary: $3.9 million ($2.6 million paid by Dodgers)

Game of the year

The Dodgers home opener on March 28 was a day of celebration, with newly-acquired Tyler Glasnow pitching quite well for his hometown team. After Glasnow departed after six innings and a five-run lead over the Cardinals, in came Yarbrough, who retired nine of his 10 batters faced for a three-inning save:

The pairing with Glasnow, his former teammate with the Rays, made for an extreme contrast in styles. The right-handed Glasnow averaged 96.4 mph on his fastball and 90.7 mph on his slider, with those two pitches accounting for 85 percent of his offerings on Thursday. In came the southpaw Yarbrough averaging 86 mph on his two-seam fastball while mixing in a 76-mph curve.

"It's a really good match, with completely opposite styles of pitching," Yarbrough said.

Yarbrough in his one year in a Dodgers uniform recorded two saves of exactly three innings and one four-inning save.

Roster status

Yarbrough is a free agent.