Tommy Kahnle is the biggest fan on the planet of Tommy Kahnle's changeup.
You won't believe it when we tell you how often the Tigers reliever throws his changeup. We had to triple-check the Baseball Savant stats ourselves.
Here's what they say: Kahnle throws his changeup 84.3 percent of the time.
On the season so far, that's 107 of 127 pitches have bene changeups. Another 19 have been 4-seam fastballs, and he threw one sinker in there.
That's up from a 72.8-percent changeup usage rate in 2024 for Kahnle.
That's an unbelievable amount. It stops becoming a changeup at some point and needs a new name, because it's not a pitch that just changes speeds off a consistently used fastball.
Kahnle's changeup is awesome, with sharp drop and an average speed of about 86 miles per hour. It works to throw it pretty much every pitch.
There's just never been a pitcher in MLB history willing to this extent to commit to his changeup.
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On the season, at bats ending in Kahnle's changeup are 4-for-29, all singles. He has five strikeouts on the pitch.
If it keeps working, he'll keep throwing it, again and again and again.
It doesn't really matter what it's called at this point. Kahnle has identified that he has one of the best pitches in Major League Baseball, and he's going to ride it as much as he needs to.
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