New York Yankees relief pitcher Tommy Kahnle delivers against the Houston Astros during the sixth inning of Game 3 of baseball's American League Championship Series, Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2019, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II) (Frank Franklin II, AP)
A familiar face is coming back to reclaim his old spot in the Yankee bullpen.
Tommy Kahnle, the 33-year-old righty who pitched for the team from 2017-2020, has agreed to a deal on Tuesday to return to the Bronx. The contract is for two years and $11.5 million, per ESPN. In his 129 games with the Yankees, Kahnle had a 4.01 ERA over 112.1 innings. During that time, he struck out exactly one-third of the batters he faced, posting a 33% strikeout rate and walking 9.7% of his opponents. Per FanGraphs, Kahnle was the Yankees’ fifth-most valuable reliever during his tenure.
Armed with just two pitches — a changeup that he uses as his primary pitch, and a four-seam fastball that averages 95 mph — Kahnle has been an effective ground ball pitcher for his entire eight-year career, which also includes stints with the Rockies, White Sox and Dodgers.
Kahnle was a key piece of the bullpen that propelled the Yankees to the 2019 American League Championship Series. But after appearing in 72 games and eight more during the playoffs that year, Kahnle has logged just 13.2 innings since. Following his lone appearance of the 2020 season, Kahnle was diagnosed with a torn ulnar collateral ligament and got Tommy John surgery. That kept him out for all of 2021, and in 2022 he resurfaced to pitch in 13 games for the Dodgers, mostly in September.
A two-year, $11.5 million contract for a relief pitcher (already a risky investment given the volatility of the position) that hasn’t handled a full workload in three years says a lot about the Yankees’ confidence in Kahnle. Their familiarity with him certainly helps too, but in Kahnle’s case, so too does the fact that Aroldis Chapman, Zack Britton and Chad Green are all free agents now too. All four were massive pieces of the 2019 bullpen. But injuries, ineffectiveness, or in Chapman’s case, a litany of off-field issues have changed the equation dramatically. Chapman is definitely not coming back, and there’s no guarantee that the aging Britton and Green will either. The Yankees knew they needed to shore up their relief pitching, and they view Kahnle as one of the men for the job.
With this addition, the Yankees currently have Kahnle, Clay Holmes, Jonathan Loaisiga, Wandy Peralta, Lou Trivino and Ron Marinaccio as the healthy members of their top reliever group. Michael King should be back in the mix at some point in 2023 once his fractured elbow heals, but Scott Effross’ Tommy John surgery all but wipes out his season. Low-leverage arms Lucas Luetge and Albert Abreu are still on the 40-man roster as well.
Kahnle was originally a fifth-round draft pick by the Yankees in 2010 but was poached by the Rockies in the Rule 5 draft while still in the minor leagues. He is a native of Latham, N.Y. Among qualified Yankee relievers, he ranks fourth in strikeout rate since the turn of the century, trailing only Chapman, Andrew Miller and Dellin Betances. During his pop-up with the Dodgers last year, he fanned 14 of the 46 hitters (30.4%) that stood in the box against him and finished with a 2.84 ERA, 0.63 WHIP and .125 opponents’ batting average.
In his first tour with the Yankees, Kahnle was known for drinking five to six Red Bulls a day, by his own admission. He has since kicked that habit.
()
Originally published at Tribune News Service