This didn’t wind up being a save situation, but if it had turned into one, it looks like Will Vest, who pitched a scoreless ninth with a 6-0 lead, would have gotten the nod over Kahnle. Vest also has the Tigers’ last two saves, though they both came on days that Kahnle was likely unavailable. Kahnle is 4-for-5 saving games, but he does make more sense as a setup man, since a structured workload probably suits him best at age 35.

It didn’t look like Kahnle would be needed in this one — especially after recording the final six outs on Thursday night — as the Tigers carried a 7-1 lead into the ninth inning. When Kenta Maeda gave up a run though and loaded the bases with one out, Tigers’ skipper A.J. Hinch went to his stopper to get him out of trouble. Kahnle issued a walk to Michael Massey to force in a run but bounced back to get Cavan Biggio on strikes and Drew Waters on a line drive to right field to end it. He has converted each of his first four save chances while posting a 1.17 ERA and a 6/1 K/BB ratio over 7 2/3 innings.

It looked as though Tigers’ skipper A.J. Hinch had wanted to save Kahnle for the ninth inning, but he was called upon earlier after Beau Brieske allowed a run to score and had two men on and no one out in the eighth. Kahnle then needed just five pitches to escape trouble — getting Hunter Renfroe to ground into a double play and Drew Waters to ground out to shortstop. He then returned for the ninth where he worked a scoreless inning to close it out. People keep saying that the Tigers’ bullpen has been a mess, but those truly paying attention have seen that Kahnle has been operating as a traditional closer since the first weekend of the season. He has made good on each of his first three save chances while posting a 1.29 ERA and 5/0 K/BB ratio over seven innings.

Kahnle made things interesting by allowing a one-out single to Trevor Larnach and a two-out infield single to Edouard Julien. He then surrendered an RBI ground ball single to Ty France that trimmed the lead to one run before ralling to get Mickey Gasper on a ground ball to first to end it. Kahnle has allowed just one run through his first five innings on the season while registering a 5/0 K/BB ratio. While many have speculated that the Tigers’ bullpen will be full of chaos in 2025, it has been Kahnle that has emerged in a traditional closer’s role to open the season. He’s worth a look in any fantasy leagues where he may still be hanging around on the waiver wire.