True Blue LA | Eric Stephen: Another member of the Yankees’ team who approached the World Series than any other team since 2009 said goodbye to the stripes. Reliever Tommy Kahnle, who missed most of 2020 with Tommy John’s surgery, signed a two-year contract with the Dodgers. A former Baby Bomber snatched in the Rule 5 Draft in 2013, Kahnle returned to the Yankees midseason in 2017 and impacted two excellent seasons around an unstable 2018. He was a valued member of two bullpens playoffs, scoring an ERA of 2.33 and 0.76 WHIP in 15 postseason games.
The bullpen definitely lost Kahnle’s presence in 2020, and not just because he was a great appeaser. (We feel your pain, Zack Britton.) Good luck to him in LA
NJ.com | Brendan Kuty: With the help of teammate Gio Urshela, Gleyber Torres recently got into the Christmas spirit of helping those in need. Urshela recently worked with the H2One company to send 36,000 bottles of disinfectant to fight the coronavirus in his native Colombia, so Torres did the same with Venezuela, which is about to experience more than 1,000 deaths from the pandemic. The 2020 Thurman Munson Prize winner is definitely living up to his name.
NY Daily News | Kristie Ackert: Brian Cashman admitted yesterday that, while DJ LeMahieu is obviously his priority, adding another left-handed baton would, in his words, be “ideal”. Makes sense; Left-handed hitters and Yankee Stadium have been a perfect match for almost a century. Aside from hitter Aaron Hicks, the only bats on the left side on his likely list are now Mike Ford, Mike Tauchman and Tyler Wade – not exactly an inspirational group. So … if I were Cashman, I would definitely add a left-handed bat and not just value it as a luxury.