One former Yankee is heading to the Bronx Bombers’ biggest rival.
Veteran reliever Tommy Kahnle has agreed to a minor league deal with the Red Sox, noti.group’s Jon Heyman first reported.
The move comes days after Boston signed lefty reliever Danny Columbe to a big league deal. The contract for Kahnle should give the Red Sox more depth in the bullpen.
Thanks in large part to an All-Star season from Aroldis Chapman, the Red Sox ranked second in MLB — and tops in the American League — in reliever ERA (3.41) and ninth in WHIP (1.25).
Kahnle, 36, pitched last season with the Tigers, holding a 4.43 ERA and 1.302 WHIP across 66 appearances. He also saved nine games for Detroit, which made the playoffs as a wild-card entrant. He was mostly undone by an ugly July in which he carried a 19.64 ERA across 11 games.
Most of his innings, 195 2/3 to be exact, came over six seasons and two separate stints for the Yankees. He was first acquired by New York in a pre-trade deadline deal with the Rockies in 2017.
His best season in The Bronx came during his last in 2024, when he recorded a career-best 2.11 ERA over 42 2/3 innings.
Kahle didn’t allow a single earned run through his first eight playoff games in 2024 but allowed two without recording an out in Game 5 of the Fall Classic, taking the loss as the Dodgers took the series.
He’s known for wielding his changeup as his primary — and sometimes only — offering, and he deployed it at an 86 percent clip in 2025.
Kahnle also pitched two scoreless innings for Team Israel at this year’s World Baseball Classic.
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
