The Yankees announced after Game 1 of today’s doubleheader that they’ve activated right-hander Adam Warren from the 10-day disabled list and optioned right-hander Tommy Kahnle to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.
The decision to send Kahnle to the minors would’ve seemed unfathomable following the 2017 season. The flamethrowing righty was a huge part of a July blockbuster with the White Sox and pitched to a combined 2.59 ERA with 13.4 K/9, 2.4 BB/9 and 0.57 HR/9 with a 40.7 percent ground-ball rate in 62 2/3 innings. Kahnle trailed only Craig Kimbrel, Kenley Jansen and teammate Chad Green in terms of K-BB%, and his 16.7 percent swinging-strike rate was the eighth-best of any qualified reliever in baseball.
So far, 2018 has been an entirely different story for the 28-year-old Kahnle, however. His average fastball velocity plummeted from 97.9 mph to 95 mph, and while that’s still plenty of heat, the near-three mile per hour drop is concerning all the same. Kahnle spent more than a month on the disabled list due to tendinitis in his right shoulder, and he’s allowed seven runs on six hits and a troubling 10 walks in nine innings when healthy. In addition to those 10 free passes, Kahlne has also snapped off a pair of wild pitches and seen his first-pitch strike rate drop from 62.1 percent in 2017 to 52.3 percent in 2018.
While it seems likely to be a short-term stay, the potential for service time ramifications does exist. Kahnle entered the season with just three years, 15 days of big league service time, meaning he’d need 157 days of service in 2018 to reach four years of service time and stay on track to become a free agent following the 2020 season. If he spends more than a month in the minors, that timeline would change, though it seems reasonable to expect the Yankees are hoping for a minimal stay in Scranton to get Kahnle’s command back on track.
Like 90% of relievers are anything but consistent and it’s horrible to watch fans ignore the mountains of data showing this. Look at Kahnle’s year to year FIPs if you don’t believe me, 2017 was an outlier.
Hey if you can find a Kimbrel, hold onto him for dear life, but otherwise, don’t ever expect repeated performances from RPs, they are in the bullpen for a reason, they don’t have the stuff to cut it as a SP and are flawed players from the get-go.
he threw 9 innings let’s just wait on that
Career 4.23 FIP and 4.04 ERA in 129 IP before 2017.
2017 might have been a mirage, that’s my point. Relievers are volatile.
There is a wave of relievers now Like Iglesias and Archie Bradley that have the stuff, just can’t through the lineup three times hence them being moved to the bullpen instead of being sent back down.
I believe Iglesias could get through the lineup 3x. He was a solid Sp but he had arm troubles so they decided to shift him back to the pen. He’s been way too good there to ever consider turning back.
Problem with him is that his changeup velocity is still at its usual 88-90 mph, I believe.
His changeup velocity is down a similar amount to his fastball velocity.
Huh. Could’ve sworn that his changeup was still high 80s. Still, not a good sign either way.
“His changeup velocity is down a similar amount . . . “
That sounds odd. I can understand loss of velocity in a FB but why would he lose velocity on his change?
Because he likely throws his changeup with the exact same motion he throws his fastball… I’d imagine the only thing different is his grip. The similar velocity drop makes perfect sense.
Hopefully he takes it well and does his work to get back to the bigs. I want Boston to do the same with Devers. Short term.
You and me both. He’s not going to get better defensively down there but hopefully they’d help him find his swing again.
Can’t believe they’re keeping him up on the roster. Too early to compare but this reminds me of Middlebrooks all over again. Kid is young so hopefully not but he needs to earn his roster space which he stopped doing in April.
“Kahnle entered the season with just 3 years, 15 days of service, needs 157 days in 2018 to reach 4 years of service time and stay on track to become FA after 2020.” —“If he spends more than a month in the minors, that timeline would change…”
I’m assuming it pushes back his FA clock to 2021. Am I the only one, who hopes the Yankees do it? Their Bullpen is still one of the best, can survive a month without Kahnle (as they’ve shown) They should keep Kahnle in the Minors for one month to get his head together, maintain control thru 2021.
I’m 99.999% sure the Yankees do not need to penny pinch a relief pitcher to save money on arbitration but hey, what do I know?
Putting him in the minors to control him through 2021 gives NYY -3 years control — after this season— Who cares about 1 month, when their bullpen is still one of the deepest weapons in the game?
They don’t “need” to but it would be smart of them to from a business perspective. Just because they can afford to throw money around doesn’t mean they should ignore an opportunity to save some.
If he comes back in a month regardless if there’s an injury or how he’s doing in the minors, expect a grievance. Not saying they’d win but it will get filed.
In 9 IP, Kahnle had 10BB and 10K, with an uncharacteristic 7ER (Comes out to 7.00 ERA)
However… I am still a believer. Yanks wouldn’t have gone as deep, in 2017 w/o Kahnle. Get better soon! And hasn’t cost us any games. 1-0 record in 2018 baby! (Kidding about W-L being significant)
The Yankees like to keep AAA well stocked. Do they still overpay minor league FA to the ire of other teams?
I doubt that the entire AAA team makes as much as Rusney Castillo.
The Yankees AAA team is a better team than some of the other MLB teams.
Absolutely! At times they have Major League level players like Drury, Kahnle, Clint Frazier, and Torreyes. It’s a good problem to have.
No one else has that!!
We need this kid. He was one of our better relievers in the playoffs last year. Hopefully hes not hurt and will just go down to the minors and regain his form.
Maybe the White Sox knew something
He was pretty money last season and pretty on par with DRob.
Pitching is outlier!
Hahn sold high on Kahnle to get Rutherford. If the latter isn’t a hit machine around 2020/2021, the deal that got decent attention may humbly for both ends just be DRob salary being shed for 1.5yrs of pitching with a contender.