Tommy Kahnle

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Thomas Robert Kahnle

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Biographical Information[edit]

Tommy Kahnle reached the majors at the start of the 2014 season.

Kahnle starred for Lynn University in the 2009 Division II College World Series, winning Most Outstanding Player in the tourney as Lynn won it. He did not allow a run in 12 2/3 postseason innings. He led the team in strikeouts and ERA as a sophomore. The New York Yankees made him the highest pick in school history when they took him in the 5th round of the 2010 amateur draft. He made his pro debut with the Staten Island Yankees that summer and was nearly unhittable (3 Sv, 1 R, 3 H, 5 BB, 25 K in 16 IP). With the Charleston RiverDogs in 2011, he was 3-5 with two saves and a 4.22 ERA but whiffed 112 in 81 IP (he also walked 49). He tied D.J. Mitchell for 5th in the Yankee chain in Ks despite being solely a reliever; the next reliever was Pat Venditte with 88.

Tommy split 2012 between the Tampa Yankees (2-1, 6 Sv, 2.45, 72 K in 55 IP, .158 opponent average) and Trenton Thunder (0 R in 2 IP). He allowed the 4th-lowest average in the minors, after A.J. Ramos, Mark Montgomery and Dane de la Rosa. In 2013, he remained hard to hit but wild with Trenton (1-3, 15 Sv, 2.85 in 46 G; 45 BB, 74 K, .182 opponent average in 60 IP). He tied Danny Burawa, Hector Neris and Zech Zinicola for 8th in the Eastern League in games pitched and was 6th in saves. He tied Burawa for the most games pitched in the Yankees chain and led in saves. The Colorado Rockies took the hard-throwing (98 mph fastball) reliever with the fourth pick of the 2013 Rule V Draft, following Patrick Schuster, Adrian Nieto and Kevin Munson.

Kahnle made his debut with the Rockies on April 3, 2014 giving up a run in 1 2/3 innings of relief in a game against the Miami Marlins. He became the first major leaguer from Lynn University when he relieved Franklin Morales with a 5-3 lead, on on and one out in the 6th. He fanned Reed Johnson and retired Christian Yelich. In the 7th, he got Jeff Baker to pop up, walked Giancarlo Stanton on a full count walk. Casey McGehee tripled in Stanton, but Kahnle got Garrett Jones and Marcell Ozuna to prevent further harm. In the 8th, he was relieved by Matt Belisle while DJ LeMahieu took his spot in the batting order. He picked up his first big league win on April 5th against the Arizona Diamondbacks; he pitched 1 2/3 innings in relief of starter Jorge de la Rosa and was the beneficiary of his teammates erasing a 4-0 deficit to win, 9-4. He went 2-1, 4.19 in 54 games as a reliever as a rookie, logging 68 2/3 innings. In 2015, he was not as effective, pitching 36 times with a record of 0-1 and an ERA of 4.86 in 33 2/3 innings, but did record his first two saves as a major leaguer. He also pitched 21 times for the AAA Albuquerque Isotopes, going 1-3, 4.67, with 6 saves. On November 24th, he was traded to the Chicago White Sox in return for minor league pitcher Yency Almonte.

Kahnle pitched only 29 times in his first season with the White Sox in 2016, going 0-1, 2.63 with 1 save. He spent the first half of the year shuttling between the Windy City and the AAA Charlotte Knights, where he was 1-1, 3.00 with 7 saves in 33 games. However, he was with Chicago for the entire first half of 2017, going 1-3, 2.50 in 37 games. Having demonstrated that he was a useful major league reliever, he was included in a traded meant to strengthen two areas of needs with the New York Yankees, accompanying fellow reliever David Robertson and 3B Todd Frazier to the Big Apple in return for P Tyler Clippard and three prospects - Ian Clarkin, Tito Polo and Blake Rutherford. He recorded a save in Game 4 of the 2017 ALDS that forced a winner-take-all Game 5 that the Yankees also won.

He was a member of the Yankees bullpen from 2018 to 2020, although injuries limited him to just 24 outings the first year, and 1 the last. In 2019, however, he made 72 appearances and went 3-2, 3.67. He also made 8 appearances in the postseason that year and was credited with a win in Game 1 of the ALDS against the Minnesota Twins on October 4th. He only gave up 2 runs (one of them in the win) in 8 innings. He missed all of 2021 then in 2022 found himself with the Los Angeles Dodgers, with no decisions and an ERA of 2.84 in 13 games. He joined the team late in the season, and then pitched three times in the postseason but gave up 3 runs in 2 innings as the Dodgers were upset by the San Diego Padres in the Division Series. He then returned to the Yankees in 2023, going 1-3, 2.66 in 42 games. In 2024, he was 0-2, 2.11 in 50 games with 2 saves.

More than any other pitcher in the majors, he relies on the change-up as his go-to pitch, throwing it well over 50% of the time (the only other pitcher in the same area code was Trevor Richards, but in his case he uses the pitch just over 50%). During the 2024 Postseason, he went through a string of four appearances in which he used the pitch an incredible 56 consecutive time. The last one was tagged for a double by Shohei Ohtani in the 8th inning of Game 1 of the World Series, but otherwise, he had been remarkably successful with that approach, even if he conceded that maybe he should mix in a fastball occasionally.

Sources[edit]

Further Reading[edit]

  • Do-Hyoung Park: "56 changeups in a row? Here's how wild Kahnle's run truly is", mlb.com, October 27, 2024. [1]

Related Sites[edit]

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