Looking for a new pitch, Kahnle turns back to an old friend
May 29—MOOSIC — Look at the box score, and Tommy Kahnle's most recent rehab outing seemed like business as usual.
One inning and three strikeouts, working around a two-out double in Scranton/Wilkes-Barre's win over Worcester on Sunday afternoon at PNC Field. Pretty standard for someone with plenty of success working out of big league bullpens. The way the New York Yankees righty went about carving through those Red Sox hitters, however, was a little bit new — and a little bit old, too.
Of the 19 pitches Kahnle threw, most (11) were his dastardly changeup. But when he needed to speed things up, rather than turning to his standard four-seamer, Kahnle instead deployed a sinker. Six of them, in fact.
In addition to making sure he's healthy after being shut down in spring training with biceps tendinitis, Kahnle has used these first four rehab assignments to reintroduce the sinker, a pitch he used sparingly early in his career, to his arsenal.
"My (four-seam) fastball isn't what it was, and I just needed something different, just another look," Kahnle said.
For most of his career, Kahnle has been a two-pitch reliever: the changeup and the four-seamer. In its heyday, the heater averaged nearly 98 mph, and it still packed elite punch in 2019 — Kahnle's last full season — when it was in the 92nd percentile for velocity. He keeps a slider in his back pocket, but he's never used it more than 12.0 percent of the time, and that came way back as a rookie in 2014.
But thanks to Tommy John surgery and the lengthy rehab that followed, Kahnle hasn't pitched much in the past few years. Including the postseason, the reliever has thrown just 15 2/3 innings in the majors since the start of 2020. That didn't scare away teams when he hit the free agent market over the offseason, however, and the 33-year-old landed back with the Yankees on a two-year, $11.5-million contract.
In his limited action with the Los Angeles Dodgers last season, Kahnle's changeup was as good as ever. So good that even though more than three of every four pitches he threw were changeups, batters still couldn't hit it. But the four-seamer was a tick slower than it was before surgery (96.5 mph in 2019; 95.5 mph in 2022), and hitters squared it up more easily.
That brought Kahnle back to the sinker, a pitch he last threw in 2017 with the Yankees.
"I just felt like the sinker definitely plays very well off of my changeup, and to be honest, because my four-seam, it's kind of like a straight plane a little bit — I like it just based off two different eyesights for the hitters," Kahnle said.
"Two different fastballs for me probably will help a lot more than (just the one)."
Over his four rehab outings, Kahnle has thrown 62 pitches. Seventeen were four-seamers and a whopping 18 (29.0 percent) have been sinkers. The velocity has been about the same for both, a tick better than 95 mph, and when the adrenaline of a big league game kicks in, that number should be even better. Neither pitch has been put in play for a hit. Kahnle said he likes the movement on the sinker, as it complements his changeup. The sinker has more horizontal movement, but doesn't fall off the table like the changeup. (Statcast has actually mislabeled six sinkers as changeups during these games.)
This rehab assignment has been like spring training for Kahnle, and spring training is notorious for pitchers testing out new pitches or hitters fooling around with a different stance. Many times, those adjustments won't make it to the regular season. Throwing as many sinkers as four-seamers over these four outings, however, would seem to indicate Kahnle is ready to bring the pitch with him to New York.
"Everything's been working, as I've been trying to work with the sinker a lot more," Kahnle said. "Feel like it's in a good spot."
With the RailRiders heading to Lehigh Valley this week, Kahnle will head to Double-A Somerset on Tuesday for his next outing.
"Overall, pretty good so far," Kahnle said of the rehab assignment. "Bouncing back good, so I think we're on the right trajectory."
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