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Four days after being designated for assignment by the Red Sox, veteran reliever Tommy Kahnle is officially departing the organization.
Kahnle cleared waivers and intends to elect free agency to search for a new team, a source confirmed Saturday.
The 36-year-old will be a candidate for a minor league deal elsewhere.
The Red Sox cut Kahnle from their 40-man roster after he allowed four earned runs and four hits in a poor eighth inning in Tuesdays loss to the Nationals.
After beginning his tenure with five shutout innings over four games from June 4-14, Kahnle allowed eight earned runs in his last four innings.
In nine innings over eight games with Boston, he allowed eight earned runs on 12 hits while walking six batters and striking out five.
Kahnle, a longtime major league reliever who is best known for six seasons over two stints with the Yankees, joined the Red Sox as a minor league free agent at the end of spring training.
He had a 1.40 ERA and 21 strikeouts in 19 13 innings with the WooSox before being called up on June 4, when he triggered an opt-out clause in his contract.
The Red Sox wanted to see if he could still be a productive arm at the major league level but determined after a month that other options were more intriguing.
Tommy was awesome, interim manager Chad Tracy said Wednesday.
His time in Worcester that I was there, he was amazing with all of our players there.
The guys loved him here.
Theres just spots where things come up and he was amazingly pro.
But sometimes things come up where it just cannot be avoided.
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