Yankees: Cessa and Kahnle well on their way to making the Opening Day roster

Entering Spring Training one of the main roster battles at Yankees camp was for the final two spots in the bullpen. Right now with a little over two weeks to go until Opening Day the favorites to win those jobs have to be RHP’s Tommy Khanle and Luis Cessa.

The Yankees bullpen is the best in baseball heading into this season after the team added Adam Ottavino and resigned Zach Britton. They’ll join a group of dominant arms that includes the returning Dellin Betances, Chad Green, Jonathan Holder and closer Aroldis Chapman.

These are the guys who are expected to do the heavy lifting this season, but that doesn’t mean the guys who earn the final spots in the pen won’t have a big impact themselves. They might not pitch in as many high leverage situations but every reliever matters and has an important role to play throughout the course of 162 game season.

Tommy Khanle and Luis Cessa are likely to win those final two spots for a couple of reasons. The first is the fact that they’ve both had very strong springs so far. Cessa has pitched more than twice the amount of innings Kahnle has with 9, making two starts. He has a 1.00 ERA, with 10 K’s, a 0.56 WHIP and a .161 OPP BA.

With Luis Severino and C.C. Sabathia both expected to start the season on the DL, Cessa is in the mix to earn a rotation spot out of camp. However, Aaron Boone recently mentioned he can envision Domingo German and Jonathan Loaisiga to win those jobs. Based on how Cessa has pitched spring and during his two starts he could fill one of those rotation spots. Either way, it’s safe to assume he’s going to be on the Opening Day roster in some form.

As for Kahnle, it’s crazy that he’s even in a position fighting for a job. He was a force out of the pen for the Yanks in 2017 down the stretch and during their postseason run but in 2018 he really struggled. His fastball velocity took a noticeable dip and a shoulder injury contributed to what was pretty much a lost season for him.

This spring his velocity is still down a tad but he’s regained a feel for his changeup and has been getting swings and misses on it throughout the spring. His control has also been great as he’s yet to allow a walk in 4.1 IP. His ERA is 0.00, with 6 K’s and a WHIP of 0.69. I know it’s just spring training but Kahnle is such a better pitcher than what he showed last season so if he’s healthy the odds of him turning things around this year are very high.

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The other reason Cessa and Kahnle are the front runners is they’re both out of minor league options. Both of them were up and down on the Scranton shuttle for most of last season so if either of one of them doesn’t make the team the Yankees are going to have to designate them for assignment.

Someone like Stephen Tarpley who has been very impressive himself this spring has options so the Yankees could always call him up early on in the season. With Cessa and Kahnle I don’t think anybody in the organization is ready to give up on them just yet so they’re going to get their shot to prove themselves, at least to start the season.

And considering how well they’ve each looked so far this spring they’ve earned that shot.