Tommy Kahnle nearly collided with the Tigers in the ALCS last season, and didn't mind dodging them. Now he's joining them.
The right-handed reliever signed a one-year, $7.75 million deal with Detroit to add another weapon to the back of its bullpen.
"It's just something about the team itself, the aura around them," Kahnle said Thursday. "They hit their stride late in the season last year and it was fun to watch from the outside. A lot of us were watching and it was definitely one of those teams where you're like, 'Do you want to run into them? I don't know.' I was really intrigued with where they're at as a ballclub, and that was a big hit for me."
So was the fact, Kahnle said, that the Tigers expressed interest in him early in free agency: "They were very high on me and what I could bring to the team and the bullpen. ... When you have a team that is that serious and they want to accommodate you in every way, based on the conversations I was having with them, it seemed to me the right way to go."
Kahnle was dominant for the Yankees last season, helping them reach the World Series. He's been one of the best relievers in baseball for three years running, with a 2.44 ERA and a .180 batting average against since 2022.
For Kahnle, watching the way Hinch and the Tigers leveraged their bullpen to wipe out a huge deficit in the wild-card race and make a historic run to Game 5 of the ALDS last year was another reason to come to Detroit.
"I was able to see the usage of the bullpen, and they were used quite heavily. They got them to the playoffs, I feel like. They were a big part of the team. It was impressive to see how they were able to respond to the bell every day," he said.
Kahnle, 35, will join high-leverage arms in the back of Detroit's bullpen like Beau Brieske, Tyler Holton, Jason Foley and Will Vest. In talking with Hinch and pitching coach Chris Fetter, "that's where they envision me, somewhere in the later innings to help out," he said.
"But I told A.J. right up front, 'You call down, I'm going to pick up the baseball and answer the call.' That's the way I've always been. I just enjoy getting out there and competing. It's been my thing since I was a little kid. I still do it to this day with my wife, she's not happy about it," Kahnle said with a laugh.
"But that's always been my mentality," he added. "I want the ball, I want to play, I want to compete, and that's what I hope to bring to Detroit."
