Ready for Round 2: Tommy Kahnle on Returning to Yankees

As Tommy Kahnle continues to train for his first full season with the Yankees, the hard-throwing reliever got some good news Thursday night. The Shaker High School grad and the Yankees agreed to a one-year, $1.3 million dollar deal to avoid arbitration. Kahnle, who took over the set up role from Dellin Betances last season, was able to do what Betances could not; avoid a contentious court battle over a season's salary.

Kahnle was also able to harness the accuracy of that powerful right arm and that not only is that what allowed him to take over the 8th inning for the Yankees, it's what got him to the Bronx in the first place. The former Blue Bison wasn't known to Yankees fans as well as Todd Frazier and David Robertson (the other two players acquired by NYY from the White Sox at the trade deadline), but he was certainly the most valuable part of that deal. Not simply in the way he performed, but Kahnle came over from Chicago with potentially three years of club control through arbitration.

Now that he's going into his first full season in pinstripes, Kahnle is poised to build on the great success he enjoyed last year and he joined Big Board Sports to talk about the excitement of 2018: