{"id":684406,"date":"2026-06-04T18:47:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-04T18:47:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/684406\/"},"modified":"2026-06-04T18:47:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-04T18:47:08","slug":"red-sox-select-tommy-kahnle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/684406\/","title":{"rendered":"Red Sox Select Tommy Kahnle"},"content":{"rendered":"

11:18am: Boston has officially selected Kahnle\u2019s contract from Triple-A Worcester. Lefty Tyler Samaniego<\/a> was optioned to Worcester to open an active roster spot. Infielder Trevor Story<\/a>, who underwent surgery for a hernia last month, moves to the 60-day IL to open a roster spot.<\/p>\n

9:20am: The Red Sox are planning to select the contract of veteran right-handed reliever Tommy Kahnle<\/a> from Triple-A Worcester, reports<\/a> Christopher Smith of MassLive.com. He\u2019s expected to be available out of the bullpen today. Boston will need to open a 40-man roster spot to accommodate Kahnle, though that can be achieved without designating anyone for assignment; Garrett Crochet<\/a> stands as an obvious 60-day IL candidate. He\u2019s already been on the shelf for 40 days and was recently diagnosed with a low-grade lat strain<\/a> that\u2019ll prolong his absence.<\/p>\n

Kahnle, 36, signed a minor league deal with the Red Sox in free agency. He didn\u2019t land a big league opportunity when triggering an upward mobility clause at the beginning of May but was reportedly planning to test free agency<\/a> if the Red Sox didn\u2019t select him to the roster after he triggered a June 1 opt-out clause. The Sox had until today to make a decision on that clause, and they\u2019ll apparently bring the veteran changeup specialist to the big league bullpen.<\/p>\n

In 19 1\/3 innings with the WooSox this season, Kahnle has pitched to a pristine 1.40 earned run average. He\u2019s set down 25.3% of his opponents on strikes, though his 13.3% walk rate is an obvious red flag. Kahnle hasn\u2019t yielded much in the way of hard contact \u2014 88 mph average exit velocity, 38% hard-hit rate, only one barrel allowed \u2014 but he\u2019s also benefited from not allowing a single home run this season. That\u2019s not sustainable for any pitcher, but the Sox have seen enough to bring him to the majors all the same.<\/p>\n

Kahnle is averaging 93\u00a0 mph on his four-seamer in Triple-A this season. That\u2019d be a career-low mark for him, shy of both his lifetime 95.8 mph and last year\u2019s 93.5 mph average. His fastball is a secondary pitch for him anyhow, though; Kahnle leans on his changeup more heavily than any pitcher in the game. He famously threw 61 consecutive changeups with the Yankees during the 2024 postseason and, true to form, has thrown his changeup at a whopping 63.4% clip in Worcester this season.<\/p>\n

Though Kahnle had a down season by his standards in Detroit last year (4.43 ERA, 18.7 K%, 11.1 BB%), he has a long track record as an effective late-inning reliever. From 2016-24, he pitched 271 1\/3 innings of 3.11 ERA ball between the White Sox, Yankees and Dodgers. He\u2019s had several injuries along the way \u2014 hence the fairly low innings total over that lengthy span \u2014 but he\u2019s pitched at least 45 innings (majors and minors combined) in each of the past three seasons and is on track to do so again in 2026. Kahnle\u2019s work from 2022-24 was particularly impressive: 96 innings, 2.44 ERA, 31 holds, four saves, 27.7% strikeout rate, 10.5% walk rate.<\/p>\n

The Red Sox don\u2019t necessarily need relief help. The Boston bullpen\u2019s 3.08 ERA on the season is the third-best mark in the entire sport, narrowly trailing the Mariners (3.01) and Braves (2.99). That number is skewed a bit by Brayan Bello<\/a>\u2018s work as a bulk arm behind openers (0.71 ERA, 25 innings), but the group has nonetheless been strong on the whole. That said, the Sox did place Garrett Whitlock<\/a> (3.20 ERA) on the injured list late last month, and they\u2019ve received shaky performances from journeymen Tyron Guerrero<\/a> and Danny Coulombe<\/a> \u2014 neither of whom can be optioned. That lack of options could potentially expose them to some roster risk to accommodate Kahnle, which would preserve the Crochet move for the next time the Sox need a 40-man spot.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"11:18am: Boston has officially selected Kahnle\u2019s contract from Triple-A Worcester. Lefty Tyler Samaniego was optioned to Worcester to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":684407,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[99,115092,28646],"class_list":["post-684406","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-sports","tag-tommy-kahnle","tag-trevor-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/684406","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=684406"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/684406\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/684407"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=684406"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=684406"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=684406"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}