MMO Free Agent Profile: Tommy Kahnle, RP

Tommy Kahnle 

Age: 33 (8/7/1989)
B/T: R/R

2022 Traditional Stats: 13 G, 0-0 record, 12 2/3 IP, 2.84 ERA, 0.632 WHIP, 14 SO, 3 BB
2022 Advanced Stats: 151 ERA+, 4.38 FIP, 9.9 SO/9, 30.4 SO%, 6.5 BB%, 0.3 bWAR

Rundown

It’s easy to tell when a bullpen is good, and it’s even easier to tell when a bullpen is bad. Nevertheless, the art of building a reliable bullpen proves to be a difficult task year after year for every team, even those teams with World Series aspirations. A player like Tommy Kahnle could very well move the needle for one of those teams.

A nine-year veteran with almost 300 appearances under his belt, Kahnle is no stranger to this sort of role. Kahnle made his major league debut with the Colorado Rockies in 2014 and has pitched in three different postseasons with the New York Yankees and the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Kahnle’s best season was in 2017, compiling a 2.59 ERA across 69 appearances. He pitched effectively as the set-up man for the Chicago White Sox before being traded at the Trade Deadline to the Yankees, where he was an integral part of the bullpen during the team’s run to the ALCS.

Kahnle features a two-pitch mix of a changeup with devastating break and a four-seam fastball in the mid-90s. Despite his limited arsenal, Kahnle has developed great pitch accuracy, leading to low walk numbers and an impressive WHIP.

However, Kahnle has not had many opportunities in recent seasons to put his talents on display. He made a career-high 72 appearances for the Yankees in 2019, but he has made just 14 appearances (13 2/3 innings) over the course of the past three seasons due to Tommy John surgery and various issues throughout his recovery.

He looked really good in a limited run for the Dodgers during the regular season in 2022, demonstrating elite swing-and-miss stuff and doing an excellent job of limiting baserunners. However, his lack of regular game action showed in the postseason, as he allowed three runs in just two innings of work during his team’s loss in the NLDS.

Kahnle has made more than 40 appearances in just three of his nine seasons in the majors, and at 33 years old it is fair to wonder how much longer a player with his injury history can hold up. Still, it is hard to argue with the results he has been able to provide when he has been healthy, and relievers with the upside that Kahnle possesses will always have a market.

Contract

Kahnle is coming off a two-year, $5.25 million contract with the Dodgers, but that number is skewed as Kahnle had undergone Tommy John surgery prior to signing and it was known that he would miss the entire 2021 season as part of his recovery.

The initial optics would suggest that Kahnle’s next contract will be for much less money given how much time he has missed with injury, but the general talk among baseball insiders is that plenty of teams are vying for his services. A bidding war could certainly take the price for Kahnle beyond what anyone who has effectively missed three straight seasons could possibly expect to receive, and yet nothing is out of the question when it comes to relievers.

Recommendation

The Mets are one of those teams linked with Kahnle, and it is clear to see why given the Mets’ bullpen currently consists of Edwin Díaz and Drew Smith.

The Mets have already had to dish out the largest free agent contract ever for a reliever to retain Díaz, and most of the 2022 bullpen innings came from guys that are now free agents in Seth Lugo, Adam Ottavino, Trevor May, Tommy Hunter, and Trevor Williams. Left-hander Joely Rodriguez recently signed with the Red Sox as well. The Mets desperately need arms to get them to Díaz, and if Kahnle still has any gas left in the tank, this would prove to be a match made in heaven.

Unfortunately, it is impossible to tell if Kahnle can recapture his former glory, and the price that a team will eventually have to pay just to be able to make that determination is far from guaranteed to be worth it. The Mets are likely better off re-signing Ottavino and focusing instead on targeting a left-handed reliever like Taylor Rogers or Andrew Chafin, a role that the team struggled to fill all season.

Kahnle has plenty of arm talent, and the intangibles are there to make him a prime candidate for a late-career resurgence similar to Ottavino. However, he needs to be able to stay on the field in order to realize that goal, and the Mets have plenty of issues more pressing to address than taking on a risk as big as Kahnle.

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