New York Yankees star Tommy Kahnle reveals Tommy John surgery made him doubt he'd ever play again: "I thought I was never going to pitch again"

New York Yankees reliever Tommy Kahnle effectively missed the entire 2020 and 2021 season (he pitched a single inning in 2020 before going down and needing Tommy John surgery). He returned with the Los Angeles Dodgers but only threw 12.2 innings last season.

Now, he's back with the Yankees and healthy and ready to pitch, but that wasn't always the case. In fact, through a lot of his recovery, he wasn't sure he'd ever be able to get on the mound again.

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Kahnle said on the R2C2 podcast:

"I thought I was never going to pitch again. I was told possibly 50/50 at one point, but it was the passion to compete, I want to say. I feel like I missed it. It was gone for almost two years. So I just was like fighting to get back out and just compete against somebody."

He continued:

"I feel like that's a thing inside guys that separates essentially is like that... you want to compete so bad for those two years of not being able to get out there and pitch and just... I need to get back. That kind of pushed me through, because I did go through a tough time."

Kahnle finally did make it back and he can hopefully return to form. Even in a small sample size, Kahnle was solid last year. If he can return to the form he was in during his first stint in New York, he will be a fantastic weapon for the Yankees bullpen.

New York Yankees bullpen: Who's involved?

Assuming Kahnle can be the weapon he once was, the New York Yankees have a very strong bullpen once again. They've beefed it up in recent years to offset the lack of a strong starting rotation, but they now boast one of the deepest rotations in baseball.