On Saturday afternoon, Kirby Yates was back in Manoa, this time as a member of an MLB all-star team stopping in Hawaii for its annual series in Japan.
The San Diego Padres closer from Kauai finished 2018 with a 5-3 record, 12 saves, a 2.14 ERA and a 0.921 WHIP. When asked if returning to his home state marked his career coming full circle, Yates was in a reflective mood.
“It’s weird, the last time I was standing on this field, it was my last high school game,” Yates said. “Pretty crazy. That was a while ago.
“Pretty fortunate to get invited to go on something like this, and even more fortunate to be able to come here and do this, and see the kids’ faces and just have them scream my name. It’s pretty surreal.”
Yates played summer ball for the Hawaii Island Movers at Les Murakami Stadium in 2005, this despite getting drafted by the Boston Red Sox in the 26th round of the MLB Draft out of Kauai High School.
Then came Tommy John surgery the following May, causing the Garden Island native to miss two seasons. Yates eventually signed with the Tampa Bay Rays in 2009 as an undrafted free agent.
Yates was set to play for Hawaii in 2008 but opted to return to Yavapai, a community college in Arizona. Local fans and little leaguers still recognized him Saturday and solicited pictures and autographs.
“Whenever you see somebody that’s actually doing it that’s from Hawaii or grew up in Hawaii and went to high school, played on this field and now you make it to the next level and get to come back in a Padres uniform or MLB uniform, just to let them know that it can be done,” Yates said of the youngsters in the crowd. “If I’ve done it, you easily can be able to do it. I’m no different from you and that’s good because I hope they believe in themselves and I hope they really feel that they can accomplish this.”
Fans on Saturday were treated to power displays from Yadier Molina of the St. Louis Cardinals, Mitch Haniger of the Seattle Mariners and a handful of other MLB stars who wowed the crowd during batting practice.
Ronald Acuna Jr. of the Atlanta Braves — likely the National League rookie of the year — and Eugenio Suarez of the Cincinnati Reds took live pitching from the Mariners’ Erasmo Ramirez, all for spectators to see.
Miami Marlins manager Don Mattingly was selected to lead this year’s team. While he wants the roster to enjoy Oahu during the layover, his main focus is to get his players ready for seven games of taking on Japan’s best Nov. 8-15.
“Obviously the weather is one of the advantages and it gets us partially (to Japan), so it cuts the travel,” Mattingly said. “One of my biggest concerns is guys who haven’t been playing for 30 days — hopefully they’ve been able to do something.
“My biggest fear as a manager with guys from other organizations is their health, and for those guys to walk out of here healthy — you want them to have a good experience. You want to try to break those guys in in a way where when we get to Japan, they’ll be able to play at full speed and play good baseball and represent MLB in that way.”
Players from this year’s University of Hawaii team were on hand to mingle with the MLB team and facilitate the Play Ball event, which put kids aged 5 to 13 in fun-focused stations along the field. And of course, the Honolulu Little League team was also present.
The MLB team holds another workout this morning at 11. The gates at Les Murakami Stadium will open at 9 a.m., as will the box office with tickets available for $15-$25. The workout will last less than two hours.
Mattingly, Yates and Molina all agreed that the venue would be a good fit for spring training and/or exhibition games in the future.
In between signing baseballs and posing for pictures with kids in the stands, Molina was told about St. Louis teammate Kolten Wong’s UH career. He was then asked jokingly if he overtook Wong as the state’s favorite Cardinal.
“I will do that,” said the nine-time All-Star, who won eight consecutive Gold Gloves from 2008 to 2015 at catcher. “I’m gonna text him that after practice.”
