Yankees 2024 Roster Report Cards: Tommy Kahnle
11/10/2024 11:00 AM
Kahnle and his changeup were an asset for the Yankees as they made their run to the World Series.
Tommy Kahnle always seems to find his way back to the Yankees. A fifth-round pick of the team back in 2010, he was snatched away by the Rockies in the 2013 Rule 5 draft. However, a July 2017 trade brought him back to New York in a deal with David Robertson and Todd Frazier. After a couple years back with the Yankees, the end of which was cut short by Tommy John surgery, he went to the Dodgers as a free agent. However when that deal expired, the Yankees brought him back ahead of the 2023 campaign, looking for him to be a dependable bullpen arm after the Yankees let some players go.
In 2024, Kahnle pretty much was a dependable bullpen arm for the Yankees — but he could be on the move again.
Grade: B+
2024 Statistics: 50 games, 42.2 IP, 2.11 ERA, 4.01 FIP, 3.55 xFIP, 9.70 K/9, 4.01 BB/9, 0.1 fWAR
2025 Contract Status: Free Agent
In the second season of a two-year deal, Kahnle missed the first month and change of the season with shoulder inflammation before returning to action on May 22nd. Kanhle pretty quickly established himself as one of the key members of the bullpen, as only twice did he come into a game prior to the sixth inning.
On the whole, Kahnle had a pretty solid season, with an ERA closer to two than three. Of the 10 earned runs he allowed on the season, three of them came in one very bad 0.1-inning outing against the Dodgers in June. Obviously, it's cherry picking to say "if you take out bad game X, he was actually really, really good," but excluding that one massive outlier of a performance, his ERA was 1.49.
Peripheral stats like FIP didn't like Kahnle's season as much, as he did have a bit of a walk habit, issuing 19 free passes in his 42.2 innings. That being said, he was very good at stranding runners when he did put them on, as he only ended up getting charged with an earned run in two of the 16 appearances in which he walked at least one batter.
Kahnle was pretty good in the playoffs overall, with the very big exception of his final appearance. Through his eight games in the postseason, Kahnle allowed just one unearned run, which was more the fault of Juan Soto and Gleyber Torres' misplays on a Shohei Ohtani double in Game 1 of the World Series. Of course, his series ended with him allowing two hits and a walk without recording an out, as he was lifted in the eighth inning of the Yankees' brutal meltdown in Game 5 of the World Series. Kahnle got tagged with the loss as the season went down in flames.
That being said, Kahnle's postseason will likely end up being most known for his incredible run with his changeup. Allowing just a .222 wOBA off his changeup for the season, Kahnle got batters to whiff on the pitch 38.9 percent of the time in 2024. That led to him relying quite a bit on it in the postseason, at one point throwing his changeup over 50 consecutive times across multiple games.
The gambit was quite effective, as that stretch included a massive Game 4 win in the ALCS, where he got the save after a dramatic back-and-forth game. By Game 5 of the Fall Classic though, the changeup just didn't have the same juice to it.
Going into 2025, Kahnle is now a free agent. On one hand, he'll be turning 36 during August of next season, so it wouldn't be shocking for the Yankees to decline going after him. On the other hand, considering how often they've brought him back, the Yankees clearly like Kahnle, and he was still pretty effective in 2024. It's not as if bringing him back would require a long or big deal, so it might be worth keeping him around as a setup man next season. We shall see.
