BRIDGEWATER – Ten pitches, nine strikes, three strikeouts. It would have been hard for Tommy Kahnle’s major-league rehab outing with the Somerset Patriots to have gone any better Tuesday night at TD Bank Ballpark.
The 34-year-old veteran Yankees right-handed reliever is working his way back from shoulder inflammation and had his rehab assignment transferred to Double-A after two scoreless outings with the Low-A Tampa Tarpons.
“I felt good going out there,” Kahnle said after the game. “I felt like in the bullpen, my command was a little all over the place, but I guess not on the mound today. So, I went out there and I felt like I was locked in; changeup looked good. I only threw four-seam and changeup today (with the) ten pitches.”
Now in his second stint in pinstripes after emerging as one of their most reliable bullpen arms from 2017-20, Kahnle has missed the entire start of the season, unable to build off a year in which he returned to the Bronx and posted a 1-3 record and 2.66 ERA in 42 outings, striking out 48 batters in 40 ⅔ innings. He says he’s “pretty anxious” to get back given how well his teammates have been playing without him.
Yankees reliever Tommy Kahnle struck out the side on 10 pitches in a scoreless inning for Double-A Somerset Tuesday night.
“You see how they’re playing, they’re playing really well this year, and I mean everybody is doing good,” he said. “The bullpen, especially, has been great. Obviously love all those guys down there, so I’m excited to get down in the bullpen with them.”
Kahnle looked ready on Tuesday; he needed four pitches to whiff Portland Sea Dogs nine-hitter Phillip Sikes, before using the minimum number of offerings to strike out two of the Boston Red Sox top prospects, outfielder Roman Anthony and infielder Marcelo Mayer, respectively. He said he’ll be back with the Patriots on Thursday regardless, and then is set for another outing on Sunday, with the location for that one to be determined.
Until then, however, he’ll build off an outing in which he made some good hitters look foolish.
“That’s always been a big thing for me, is reading the swings,” Kahnle said. “Essentially, if I’m getting bad swings on a changeup early, I’m pretty much probably going to stick with it. I saw them, so yeah, I was using it pretty heavily tonight.”
Kahnle’s outing somewhat overshadowed another rehab appearance on the same night by infielder Oswald Peraza, who has also missed the entirety of the big-league season after suffering a shoulder injury this spring.
Still just 23 years old and considered to be one of the top prospects in baseball when he came through Somerset the first time in 2021, Peraza was seemingly in line to finally cement himself as a regular big-leaguer as the Yankees third baseman – with perhaps some second and short mixed in as has been the case the past two years – but instead found himself sidelined and seeing the spot filled by a combination of Oswaldo Cabrera, Jon Berti and Jahmai Jones.
“It was tough,” said Peraza, through team video assistant and interpreter Carlos Cespedes. “As a player, you work so hard to get to that point, but I just took it all in. When I was down (rehabbing) in Tampa, it was just trying to get better every day; get better as a player and try to find a way to get better. Now, that work continues.”
Peraza, who went 0-for-3 with a walk and a run scored on Tuesday, said he expects to remain with Somerset through at least Sunday, and will learn the next steps from the Yankees from there. While that may be murky for now, what isn’t is how he feels.
While the Venezuela native does rely on a translator in interviews, he made sure his message was loud and clear in spotless English when asked how he was physically feeling heading into the week. “Perfect,” he said. “100 percent.”
