JUST IN: Tommy Kahnle previews the Yankees’ 2024 season.

Tommy Kahnle is hoping to build on a solid ten years of bullpen work as he enters the second year of his second MLB career with the Yankees. With two unsuccessful seasons completely behind him, the 34-year-old right-hander will look to build on the success he regained in 2023, this time in the Bronx.

42 G, 40.2 IP, 2.66 ERA, 3.97 FIP, 3.79 xFIP, 1.11 WHIP, 10.62 K/9, 4.20 BB/9, 1.11 HR/9, 0.3 fWAR are the 2023 statistics. Additionally,

2024 ZiPS Projections: 10.81 K/9, 3.74 BB/9, 1.45 HR/9, 0.2 fWAR, 63 G, 63.0 IP, 4.16 ERA, 4.34 FIP, 1.22 WHIP

The not-so-grand finale of the first Tommy Kahnle Yankees Experience was a single inning in 2020. In July 2017, he was traded from Chicago to New York, returning to the team that had first selected him in the 2010 Lynn University selection before Colorado took him in the Rule 5 selection. Now a legitimate big leaguer, Kahnle had years of productive alternating between them, culminating in that single frame during the COVID-shortened season.

Kahnle had a great inning, striking out a pair, but Tommy John surgery was required for his barking elbow. He missed all of 2021 as a result, and in 2022, when he was still with the Dodgers, he only worked 12.2 innings. His total pitching innings over three seasons was 13.2, which is not optimal.

However, Kahnle is coming off of a fairly strong comeback in 2023 and is now into the second half of a two-year contract with the Yankees. Despite this, he worked 40.2 innings—his most in four seasons—and finished with a 3.97 FIP and 2.66 ERA. At thirty-three, he was still striking out batters with a strikeout percentage close to thirty and a fastball velocity of over ninety-five mph. After a few disappointing seasons, Kahnle made a much-needed return, and he will likely play a significant role in the Yankees bullpen, which has already suffered some setbacks.

As previously mentioned, after the Yankees acquired Kahnle from the White Sox in the 2017 season as part of a trade that also included Todd Frazier and put them back together with David Robertson, Kahnle performed admirably. He had a terrible year in 2018, with his ERA skyrocketing to almost six and a half, but he bounced back in 2019 with a 3.33 FIP in 61.1 innings. After the aforementioned run of ailments, he had a good year in 2023. The hard-throwing righty’s career has been up and down, but when healthy and on the field, he can be a very good reliever.

Kahnle is expected to enter the 2024 season carrying on an intriguing pattern in his career—throwing his best pitch more frequently—which is a more general trend that has gained popularity in the sport.

After making his switch, Kahnle hasn’t truly looked back. In 2023, he tossed his change 75.8 percent of the time, a personal and even historic percentage that Ben Clemens examined in further detail at FanGraphs. When it comes to changeups, though, Kahnle is essentially in a class by himself. With a pitch usage percentage of 57.9 percent, he was far ahead of Devin Williams in the league and held the record for the highest percentage in the history of pitch monitoring.

The pitch isn’t particularly magical, but Kahnle throws it with a respectable amount of force compared to the average changeup (88.8 mph) and gets some downward movement for its speed. It causes a lot of grounders and swing-and-misses, which are two things that all pitchers enjoy. Kahnle has been building toward this trend for some time, and it appears to be working really well so far.

With over a season having passed since his severe arm issues, Kahnle and his replacements are probably expected to be key members of the Yankees’ relief staff going into camp. With Michael King gone and Scott Effross and Lou Trivino’s injuries updated, Kahnle should be thrown into an even higher leverage role to begin the season, assuming all goes according to plan. Although Kahnle’s career has been difficult at times, the Yanks should feel confident about him in that position provided he can maintain his health.