Tommy Kahnle heads back to Yankees

Dec 6, 2022 - 5:11 PM

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Right-hander Tommy Kahnle is now more than two years removed from Tommy John surgery, hoping to build on his success over the final month of 2022. He’ll do so for the Yankees, with whom he agreed to a two-year, $11.5-million contract, per Ken Rosenthal at The Athletic and Jeff Passan at ESPN.

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Kahnle had Tommy John surgery while with the Yankees in August 2020, and he signed a two-year, $4.75-million contract with the Dodgers that winter, knowing he’d miss all of 2021 while rehabbing. But he also missed roughly five months in 2022, too. Kahnle was on the injured list the first three weeks of the season, then pitched in only four games in May before he was sidelined for four months with a bone bruise in his right elbow.

He made $3.45 million in 2022.

While on the mound with the Dodgers, Kahnle was highly effective with his changeup-heavy mix, posting a 2.84 ERA and 2.39 xERA in his 13 games, with 14 strikeouts (a 30.4-percent strikeout rate) against three walks in 12⅔ innings.

He struck out four of his six batters faced in his first two appearances in the National League Division Series, but then allowed all three batters to reach base in the fateful seventh inning of Game 4, allowing three runs as the Dodgers were eliminated in San Diego.

Kahnle’s 2022 numbers were right in line with his numbers since 2017 — a 3.58 ERA, 2.93 FIP, and 34.8-percent strikeout rate. But he’s only pitched 13⅔ innings over the last three seasons and is now 33 years old.

Kahnle in eight major league seasons has a 3.78 ERA and 3.51 FIP in 298 games, all in relief, with 358 strikeouts and 135 walks in 290⅓ innings for the Rockies, White Sox, Yankees, and Dodgers.

We got 23 different entries in our True Blue LA free agent crowdsource, and Kahnle was picked to sign with 14 different teams. Two folks correctly predicted the Yankees — silverwidow and Chiefsdodgerslakers2415.