Kenley Jansen is back in Los Angeles, although not at spot of his career-defining success.
Jansen agreed to a one-year, $10 million contract with the Los Angeles Angels pending a physical on Monday, a day before pitchers and catchers reported to spring training in Tempe, Az.
His signing removes the most successful high-leverage reliever from the free agent market and also gives the Angels more runway to develop expected future closer Ben Joyce and his 105-mph fastball.
Jansen has built his career on a cut fastball, the pitch that brought Mariano Rivera to prominence, and he threw it 84.9 percent of time a year ago while sprinkling in a very occasional sinking fastball and slider, pitches he used more often in his final two seasons with the Dodgers in 2020-21
His strikeout rate, while still above average, was a career-low 10.21 per nine innings last season.
Jansen, who at 37 could be considered a snort-term solution, has 447 saves in a 15-career that was transformed when then-Dodgers player personnel staffer De Jon Watson suggested a move from catching to pitching.
A four-time All Star with four 40-plus save seasons, Jansen spent the last two seasons with the Boston Red Sox, where he had 56 saves in 105 appearances after signing a two-year, $32 million deal. He left the Dodgers after the 2021 season and spent 2022 in Atlanta before going to Boston.
Jansen was 4-2 with a 3.29 ERA and 27 saves and four blown saves a year ago. He is the active major league leader in career saves, pitching appearances (871) and games finished (653).
He will be the latest free agent to take over as closer for a team that has not had a a 40-save season since 2015, when Huston Street was 3-3 with a 3.18 ERA and 40 saves.
Carlos Eztévez and Raisel Iglesias filed the role in the last four seasons. Estévez had 51 saves in 2023-24 before being traded to the Philadelphia Phillies at the 2024 trade deadline, a move precipitated by his pending free agency.
Iglesias had 50 saves in 2021-22 before being traded to the Atlanta Braves at the 2022 trade deadline for similar reasons.
A Matter Of The Heart
Jansen has dealt with atrial fibrillation, an irregular heartbeat, since being diagnosed in 2011. He has undergone several corrective procedures, and he told reporters that he had to have his heart shocked in 2012, 2018 and 2022 after facing the Colorado Rockies in Coors Field.
Kenley Jansen spent the last two seasons in Boston. (AP Photo/Michael Dwyer)
He did not travel to Colorado with Boston for a three-game series last summer. The Angels are scheduled to play a three-game series in Colorado from Sept. 19-21.
“Too many times, stuff happened over there with me,” Jansen said last season. “2022 was the last time I went there. It started off when I went back to Atlanta. I started having issues and then a couple weeks later, I went back to a-fib. Just try to avoid that right now.”
A Hall of Fame Candidate
Jansen’s career numbers are in the line with those of Billy Wagner, the most recent closing specialist to be voted into the Hall of Fame when he was elected this year. Wagner had 422 saves in a 16-year career, the fourth-most among the 90 pitchers enshrined.
Mariano Rivera (652) and Trevor Hoffman (601) are the only closers with more than 600 saves, and Lee Smith (478) is third. All four have been added since 2018, when the position gained traction among voters despite the relative lack of innings.
Jansen also has been particularly effective in the postseason, with a 2.20 ERA and 20 saves in 59 appearances. He averaged 12.9 strikeouts per nine innings with a 5.22:1 strikeout to walk ratio.
Angels’ Bullpen Came Together Late in 2024
Joyce, the Angels’ third-round pick in the 2022 draft out of Tennessee, settled in as a setup man after Eztévez and Luis Garcia were traded the the deadline last season for a bullpen that had a 3.36 ERA the final two months of the season, according to the Orange County (Calif.) Register.
Joyce was 2-0 with four saves and a 2.08 ERA in 31 appearances a year ago, a positive sign. But he has pitched only 44 2/3 innings in two brief stints with the Angels, who are committed not to rush.
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