Rockies Year in Review: Tommy Kahnle

Here at Rox Pile, we are starting a player review for each and every player that suited up in a Colorado Rockies uniform this season. This series will be going all the way up until Dec. 15 with player profiles posted every day.

Today, we are featuring former Rockies relief pitcher Tommy Kahnle.

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Tommy Kahnle was acquired almost two years ago through the Rule Five draft from the New York Yankees organization. He was a relative bright spot in 2014; I say relative because the bullpen was a disaster and he wasn’t so bad. He started 2015 in the minors and was called up at the beginning of June and had some bright spots.

Through his first 30 appearances, Kahnle was pretty solid. In 30 appearances, Kahnle had 36 strikeouts, 19 walks, two home runs and a 2.51 ERA in 28.2 innings. For a Rockies reliever, that’s a fantastic line. Walks notwithstanding, he was clearly avoiding hard contact from hitters. Sadly, it fell apart from there.

Kahnle 2015: 33.1 IP, 4.48 ERA, 1.77 WHIP, 39 K, 28 BB, 3 HR

In his final six appearances Kahnle lost control. He walked nine batters and gave up 10 runs in 4.2 innings, culminating in a four-walk performance before his demotion. The Rockies were hoping to tap into Kahnle’s live arm and develop him into a back-end bullpen piece, and were able to improve his K/9 from 8.3 to 10.9, but the walks were too much to handle.

Kahnle took a step back in 2015 from a control standpoint. His BB/9 rate ballooned from 4.1 (okay) to 7.6 (awful). With the Rockies moving away from collectively walking 3.65 per nine innings and leading the majors in that category, Kahnle probably pitched himself out of the picture.

Kahnle is no longer with the Rockies after being designated for assignment and subsequently traded to the White Sox for Yency Almonte.

Next: Rockies Year in Review: Tom Murphy

Check out our continuing 2015 Player Review series with the latest installment catcher Tommy Murphy.