The White Sox added a power relief arm on Tuesday when they acquired Tommy Kahnle from the Colorado Rockies.
Kahnle, a former Rule 5 draftee who had two saves in three tries in 2015 during a brief stint as a closer, was exchanged for White Sox minor-leaguer Yency Almonte.
The right-hander, who had 102 strikeouts in 102 innings with the Rockies over two seasons, was designated for assignment on Friday as teams had to set their 40-man rosters for next month’s Rule 5 draft.
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Kahnle features a mid-to-upper 90’s fastball and an effective changeup. But control issues have hurt him as he has issued 59 walks in the majors and another 135 in 241 minor-league innings. Kahnle, whom Colorado selected in the December 2013 Rule 5 draft from the New York Yankees, posted a 4.86 ERA and struck out 39 in 33 1/3 innings last season.
Almonte came over to the White Sox from the Los Angeles Angels in February as the player to be named later in the August 2014 trade for Gordon Beckham. He had a 3.41 ERA in 24 games (22 starts) between Single-A Kannapolis and Single-A Winston-Salem last season, striking out 110 in 137 1/3 innings.