TAMPA — After pitching Thursday and Saturday, Tommy Kahnle is no closer to returning.
The Yankees’ right-handed reliever has been dealing with biceps tendinitis. He has endured pain and discomfort there in the past, as recently as 2018.
“I haven’t been feeling that great, so I’m not sure what the next steps are,” Kahnle said Sunday morning at the Yankees’ spring training complex. “But I know we’re regrouping today and figuring out where we go from there.
“I know it is the same place and it has not been clarified yet. So I’m going to stall for time and come back when I’m ready.”
Kahnle did not have an updated timeline for his recovery, nor did he know if he would need to undergo further tests. Aaron Boone, for his part, acknowledged that the pitcher’s rehabilitation has been delayed.
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“It slows down his clock a little bit until he can shoot, recover and keep building,” the coach said Saturday. “Hopefully not a lot, but at least a little.”
Kahnle is in his third season with the Yankees after signing a two-year, $11.5 million contract during the offseason. The club selected the Latham, NY native in the fifth round in 2010, but the Rockies selected him in the Rule 5 Draft three years later. Colorado traded Kahnle to the White Sox in November 2015, and Chicago sent him to the Yankees in the July 2017 trade that also brought Todd Frazier to the Bronx and reunited David Robertson with the pinstripes.
Kahnle finished that season posting a 2.70 ERA in his first 32 major league games in the Yankees organization. But his biceps acted poorly the following season, and he spent some time in the minors posting a 6.56 ERA in 24 MLB games. Kahnle rebounded in 2019, posting a career-high 3.67 ERA in 72 games, but his second season with the Yankees ended in disaster the following year.
Kahnle pitched in just one game in 2020, had Tommy John surgery in August and missed the entire 2021 season after signing a make-and-return contract with the Dodgers. He posted a 2.84 ERA in 13 games for Los Angeles in 2022, while also allowing three earned runs in two postseason innings.
“I’m sick of rehabbing,” said Kahnle, who has pitched in just 14 regular-season contests since 2020. “(The biceps) definitely got better. But I guess he wasn’t ready yet.”