The Los Angeles Dodgers have signed former Yankee RHP Tommy Kahnle to a 2 year, $5.25 million contract.
Kahnle, 31, has spent his major league career with the Colorado Rockies, Chicago White Sox and most recently the New York Yankees. He has a 3.48 ERA since 2016 and 12.4 SO/9. Unfortunately, Kahnle had Tommy John surgery in August of 2020 and will not be pitching in 2021. However, the Dodgers knew this and went ahead with the signing anyways.
There has already been a lot of criticism by fans that don’t understand the game of baseball. Some common remarks are, “Why sign this guy if he isn’t going to pitch next season?” or “What a waste of money for someone who is injured.” The ability to look past the 2021 season and understand that this move is mainly for 2022 is important.
This is another classic signing by the Dodgers since it is low risk and high reward. He won’t pitch in 2021 but when he comes back in 2022, he will have a completely rebuilt arm and most likely have more velocity on his pitches.
His contract will pay him $750,000 in 2021 while he is recovering from Tommy John and then he will make $3.45 million in 2022 when he returns. The deal also includes a $550,000 signing bonus and $750,000 in incentives for the 2022 season.
I think that this was a very under the radar signing by the Dodgers. Kahnle has good pitches and a ridiculous changeup.
With this signing, the Dodgers may have started to get to work on the free agent market. I’m sure that they also are looking at other players like DJ Lemahieu and Liam Hendriks. It seems as if the Dodgers have already started to look ahead towards a post Kenley Jansen bullpen in 2022.
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