The White Sox announced that they have acquired right-hander Tommy Kahnle from the Rockies in exchange for minor league right-hander Yency Almonte (Twitter link). Kahnle was designated for assignment by the Rockies last Friday in a series of moves to set the club’s roster in advance of the Rule 5 Draft.
Kahnle, who turned 26 in August, came to the Rockies from the Yankees organization by way of the Rule 5 Draft in 2013. He’s totaled 102 innings for the Rox over the past two years — his lone MLB experience — and posted a 4.41 ERA while averaging exactly one strikeout per inning to go along with a strong 49.4 percent ground-ball rate. Kahnle’s problem, however, has been a lack of control. Though he’s averaged 95 mph on his fastball in the Majors (95.9 mph in 2015), he’s averaged 5.2 walks per nine innings pitched and issued an alarming 27 unintentional walks in 33 1/3 innings this past season.
The 21-year-old Almonte came to the Sox as the player to be named later in the 2014 deal that sent Gordon Beckham to the Angels. Almonte spent the 2015 campaign pitching for Class-A Kannapolis and Class-A Advanced Winston-Salem, posting a combined 3.41 ERA with 7.2 K/9 against 2.5 BB/9 in 137 1/3 innings (22 starts; 24 total appearances). He didn’t rank among Chicago’s Top 30 prospects, per MLB.com.
Championship!
Was kinda hoping Preller would take a flier on Kahnle. He has great stuff and has two more option years left. I bet Balsley could fix him.
I think I can speak for everyone who reads this site when I say:
HURRY UP WITH THE REAL TRADES!!!!
Damn, Kahnle other than the obvious control problems, had a great year with the Rockies, and they need all the pitching they can get to be honest
Your “Other than that, what did you think of the play, Mrs. Lincoln?” comment of the year!
Kahnle was unplayable even for the team with the worst bullpen in baseball last year. They had to cut him (and actually have loads of depth of his level).