TAMPA — After pitching Thursday and Saturday, Tommy Kahnle isn’t about to return.
The Yankees right-handed reliever has been struggling with biceps tendonitis. He has endured pain and discomfort there in the past, as recently as 2018.
“I haven’t felt as good, so I don’t know what the next steps are,” Kahnle said Sunday morning at the Yankees’ spring training complex. “But I know we’re regrouping today and figuring out where we’re going from there.
“I know it’s the same place and it hasn’t been cleared up yet. So I’ll just save time and come back when I’m ready.
Kahnle did not have an updated timeline for his recovery, nor did he know if he will need to undergo any further tests. Aaron Boone, meanwhile, acknowledged that the pitcher’s rehabilitation had been delayed.
“It slows his clock down a bit until he can throw, rebound and keep building,” the manager said on Saturday. “Let’s hope not a lot, but at least a little.”
Kahnle is in his third stint with the Yankees after signing a two-year, $11.5 million contract in the offseason. The club drafted the Latham, NY native in the fifth round in 2010, but the Rockies picked him up in the Rule 5 draft three years later. Colorado sold Kahnle to the White Sox in November 2015, and Chicago sent him to the Yankees in the July 2017 trade that also brought Todd Frazier to the Bronx and reunited David Robertson with the scratches.
Kahnle finished that season recording a 2.70 ERA in his first 32 major league games in the Yankees organization. But his biceps kicked in the following season, and he spent time in the minors while totaling a 6.56 ERA in 24 MLB games. Kahnle rebounded in 2019, recording a career-high 72-game ERA of 3.67, but his second stint with the Yankees ended in disaster the following year.
Kahnle only played one game in 2020, had Tommy John surgery in August and missed the entire 2021 season after signing a recuperation and return contract with the Dodgers. He recorded a 2.84 ERA in 13 games for Los Angeles in 2022, in addition to allowing three earned runs in two playoff innings.
“I’m sick of rehab,” said Kahnle, who has only appeared in 14 regular-season contests since 2020.[The bicep] definitely better. But I guess he just wasn’t ready yet.
()
denverpost
