Power Pitching: Talking About the Secret Weapon in the Yankee's Bullpen

The predominant story line of the 2016 MLB playoffs was the evolution of how managers handled their bullpens. At the forefront of the conversation were Indians relievers Andrew Miller and Cody Allen as well as Chicago Cubs fireman Aroldis Chapman. Convention would dictate that managers hold off to the ninth inning to slot in their respective closers. Keep your best bullpen arm in reserve until you get a lead going into the final inning and unleash him for those final three outs. It is a tried and true formula. However, as we saw in last year’s post-season, major league managers were more willing to  shed some of those pre-existing concepts of what a pitchers role was coming out of the bullpen. It’s not entirely an alien concept to MLB. Long relief aces were once one of the defining characteristics of championship caliber teams (the 1990 “Nasty Boys” being an excellent example). In recent years, former Nationals hurler Tyler Clippard made a name for himself as a mid-to-late game stopper who could go multiple innings. However, last year’s postseason was defined by these instances. In some cases, it worked (for instance, it’s hard to believe that the Cleveland Indians would’ve made it to the World Series without 19.1 innings of brilliant relief by Andrew Miller). In other cases, it didn’t (Joe Maddon extending Aroldis Chapman over thirty pitches after he had pitched four innings the previous two days nearly cost the Cubs their first championship in over a hundred years).

Rajai Davis' homerun nearly turned Joe Maddon from tactical genius to dim-witted goat.

This post-season, Yankees manager Joe Girardi is continuing that trend as he has navigated his Yankees team to a 3-2 lead over the Houston Astros and a single game away from his second managerial World Series. Along the way, we’ve witnessed some remarkable bullpen performances. Set-up man David Robertson snapped off 2.2 innings of shutout baseball on October 11^th. Aroldis Chapman followed suit later that game with 2.0 innings of his own in the eventual 5-2 Yankees victory. However, perhaps the name that has revealed itself as a star the most this postseason is a Tommy Kahnle.

Tommy Kahnle was probably not the first name you picked when discussing potential breakout stars who might emerge this postseason. The Astros boast the hard throwing Ken Giles, the Red Sox have the ever-intimidating stare down of Craig Kimbrel, and the Dodgers have the nearly unhittable Kenley Jansen. These were the pitchers who you probably expected to emerge as this year’s Andrew Miller. But not Tommy Kahnle. Hell, Kahnle wasn’t even the most likely suspect on his own team to emerge as a multi-inning shutdown man. In a bullpen that features Aroldis Chapman, Delin Betances, and David Robertson, it’s remarkably easy to overlook about the 6’1”, 235 pound frame of Tommy Kahnle.

Stuff has never been a question for the big right handed pitcher. Featuring a fastball that has sat at around 96 MPH for his career, a solid change-up, and a serviceable slider, Kahnle has long had the tools to be an intriguing bullpen piece for MLB managers. However, the results weren’t always there for the righty and when he was traded from the White Sox to the Yankees in a July deal, it was hard not to view him as a throw-in. Granted he was coming off a strong year in 2016, but Kahnle lacked the long-term pedigree of fellow shut down relievers. The sour taste of two tough years in Colorado is hard to wash out (then again, most pitchers who have the misfortune of calling Colorado their home field leave with a similar feeling). No, the prizes of that July 18^th trade were seemingly third baseman Todd Frazier and the return of former Yankees fireman, David Robertson. In the postseason, however, Frazier’s performance has been far from ideal (his wall smashing double from Game 3 notwithstanding). Across 37 at-bats this postseason, Frazier has put up an ugly .216 average with 1 home run and 5 RBI. Indeed, in 66 games with the Yankees after coming over from Chicago, Frazier hit .222 with 11 home runs and 32 RBI while striking out 54 times in 194 at-bats (over 27% of the time). not very good at all. Conversely, Robertson has been as good, if not better, than advertised during his second stint in New York. In 30 games, Robertson has struck out fifty-one batters while only allowing 14 hits in thirty-five innings. Robertson’s success was expected though. Kahnle’s dominance? That is a different story.

Tommy Kahnle has emerged as an intriguing weapon out of the Yankee's 'pen.

As is so often the case in major league baseball, postseason heroes are often born in the most unexpected of places. Slap-hitting Daniel Descalso slaying the Nationals in 2012 with a two-run single. Cody Ross’ five homerun NLCS in 2010 for the San Francisco Giants. Chicago White Sox reserve Geoff Blum blasting a homerun in Game 3 of the 2005 World Series vs. Houston.  Often, the stars of the postseason are not the stars of the game itself. Kahnle was solid for the Yankees during the regular season, twirling 26.2 innings of 2.70 baseball after the July 18^th trade. In the postseason, however, Tommy Kahnle has been nearly perfect, posting an unblemished era of 0.00 across ten innings. With nine punch-outs vs. just four base runners allowed, Kahnle has given Joe Girardi another late inning weapon to turn to. Yet, Girardi isn’t just turning to Kahnle late in games. Of the righty's six games, four have been multi-inning performances with key outings coming in the Wild Card play-in game vs. Minnesota and two brilliants innings of five strikeout baseball vs. Cleveland in Game 4.

What has been the driving force behind Kahnle’s emergence as a shut-down man out of the Yankee’s pen? For Kahnle, much of the success is simply mental. “In years past, I felt like I went back and I was losing my stuff and [my] velocity was dropping,” Kahnle told reporters from the Sporting News in an interview. “I realized you gotta go out there and pitch. You can’t worry about other things and you gotta give the team as many outs as they can get... For some reason I used to think I was worse in the second inning, but I basically had to get over that.” Yankees manager Joe Girardi concurs with the righty’s self-assessment. “The one thing we weren’t quite sure about him when we got him is how much we could use him multiple innings,” the Yankee’s manager said, “He was very successful in Chicago and we were concerned if we took him out of that type of role, would it change who he was?” As you can see, neither Kahnle nor Girardi were really sure what to expect when pushing the big-righty deeper into appearances. While multi-inning performances aren’t necessarily alien to Kahnle, they’re far from the norm. In 2015 and 2016, Kahnle pitched two full innings twice. While he had some experience going longer into games during his rookie year in 2014, there was no way to know that he would be nearly as effective as he has been in 2017. Clearly, Girardi’s gamble has paid off and has put the Yankees on the cusp of their forty-first World Series.