Kenley: The king of Dodger closers
By Cary Osborne
(This story originally appeared in the fourth edition of the Dodger Insider magazine.)
With the count 1–2, Kenley Jansen delivered his signature cutter to Ben Zobrist, who grounded it to third base for the final out of the eighth inning in Game 6 of the 2016 National League Championship Series against the Cubs.
It completed an incredible performance for Jansen — nine batters, nine outs.
It could also have been the final pitch Jansen had ever thrown in a Dodger uniform. And if it had been, he would still go down as arguably the greatest closer in franchise history — cemented by a season in which he made the NL All-Star team for the first time in his career, set the franchise record for career saves and delivered one of the gutsiest postseasons ever by a Dodger reliever.
“I was close,” says Jansen, who was a free agent after the 2016 season, on potentially leaving the Dodgers.
But he didn’t want to go.
“I don’t want to take this uniform off of me,” Jansen continues. “They will have to take this uniform off me. I want to be here as long as I can and win a championship.”
By signing with the Dodgers for five years, Jansen has the potential to put up numbers that will distance himself far from any reliever from Dodgers past and raise the bar so high it would take at least another generation for another pitcher to match him. Jansen, should he remain a Dodger for the entirety of the contract, would wear the uniform for 12 years and thus potentially go down as one of the greatest pitchers in franchise history.
Every save Jansen earns sets a new franchise record.
He’s at 205 and counting.
On June 20, 2016, his 162nd save put him in first place in the category, passing Eric Gagne.
Jansen saved 180 games between 2012 and 2016. If he matches that number over the next five seasons, he will have 369 saves by the end of 2021. Only 10 relievers in big league history have recorded at least 360 saves.
Jansen says his place in Dodger history is important to him. It does drive him. But it is secondary to him.
“I want to be known as the guy holding a trophy at the end of the season,” he says. “It’s awesome to think about history. It is awesome to have the all-time record now and knowing I could be the best. But it will be even more awesome to win a World Series here. That’s what I’m obsessed with. I’m not worried about any individual stuff. But helping the team win and do my part and try to win the World Series, that’s what I want.”
Jansen smiled when he mouthed the words: “World Series.”
“I don’t think anything would mean more than that,” he says. “I’ve done pretty much all I wanted to do here in the Dodger organization. I’ve accomplished a lot.”
Among Dodger relievers with at least 250 appearances, he ranks second in franchise history in ERA, WHIP, SO/BB ratio and first in opponents’ OPS, SO/9 and strikeouts. Since 2000, among Major League relievers with 300 appearances, Jansen ranks third in ERA, opponents’ OPS and K/9 and second in WHIP and K/BB ratio.
In his first seven seasons, Jansen struck out 632 batters. It took Hall of Famer Hoyt Wilhelm, who owns the Major League record for strikeouts by a reliever, 21 seasons to strike out 1,363 batters.
Jansen’s last five years have been so dominant that Dodger pitching coach Rick Honeycutt can make a comparison to his former teammate and Hall of Famer Dennis Eckersley, who between 1988 and 1992 finished in the top six of the American League Cy Young Award voting four times, winning the prize and the MVP in 1992.
“Two different styles of pitchers, but a lot of similarities in terms of control,” Honeycutt says. “Eck was obviously more fastball/slider, and Kenley’s mainly been a lot more one pitch (cutter). I think the best comparison is guys having to hit their way on. They both don’t walk people. Pretty much positive counts. But I think with either one of them the hitters probably pretty much knew what they were getting and still were dominated by them. They’re good at what they do, but they’re also aggressive and attack the zone and stay with their strengths.”
Prior to 2015, Jansen walked 3.9 batters per nine innings. In 2015–16, he turned that number into 1.4. That was fifth best in the big leagues among relievers who faced at least 280 batters.
Then this year comes the Major League record. Jansen didn’t just break Adam Wainwright’s Major League record of strikeouts to start a season without a walk. He is obliterating it. Jansen has 50 strikeouts this season and still hasn’t surrendered a walk. Wainwright set the record in 2013 with 35.
Jansen’s WHIP is 0.548. The all time best WHIP by a reliever is Koji Uehara’s 0.565, set in 2013.
But for as much as Jansen has accomplished in the regular season, his value and visibility reached a new level last postseason. Prior to the playoffs, he had recorded just one career save of at least five outs. In Game 1 of the National League Division Series, he was asked to get five outs and succeeded. But it was his performance in Game 5 of the series that revealed more about Jansen’s capabilities.
In the top of the seventh inning of the series-deciding game, the Dodgers scored four times — stunning the Washington Nationals in their home park.
But Grant Dayton couldn’t get an out in the bottom half of the frame.
Danny Espinosa walked, followed by a two-run, pinch-hit home run by Chris Heisey. Clint Robinson followed with a single. And manager Dave Roberts, without any hesitation, briskly walked to the pitcher’s mound stuck his right hand in the air with his right index finger out and called for Jansen.
After a quick commercial break on the national telecast, FS1 broadcaster and former Major Leaguer Harold Reynolds was incredulous.
“And your eyes are not deceiving you,” he said. “That is Kenley Jansen — and it is the seventh with no outs.”
This was asking a lot.
Through 2 1/3 innings in Game 5, the 6–5 right-hander battled. It wasn’t pretty. Four walks. A hit. He lived on the edge. But Jansen managed to hold the lead and passed the baton to Clayton Kershaw to get the final two outs and give the Dodgers a dramatic series win.
“I knew that there would be a willingness because there’s buy-in — Kenley’s all in,” Roberts says. “He wants to win a championship with the Dodgers, and so obviously what he did in the postseason, it’s been a long time since a guy at the back end has done that — especially in this modern day, with closers and how they’re used. I wouldn’t say I was surprised, but I was very impressed.”
In Game 2 of the NLCS against the Cubs in Chicago, he earned the first six-out save of his career. In Game 6, he pitched a career-high three innings while retiring those nine straight batters. That ability to extend beyond the normal three-out save continues into the start of 2017, going more than an inning in two of his first four saves of the season.
“I learned a lot about myself,” Jansen says of last postseason. “I didn’t know I had that part of myself, to be honest with you. If I didn’t do that, I probably wouldn’t know I could do that. And that makes you learn more about yourself and who you are, and (maybe) I can do even more than that. And I’m still learning. That helped me out tremendously and boosted me and lifted that confidence more.”
Jansen has 19 regular season career saves in which he recorded four or more outs — 11 of those occurrences happened since the beginning of 2016. Jansen has converted on his last nine opportunities in four-outs-or-more situations.
However, Jansen still has much distance to travel to match the Dodger who converted the most four-plus-out saves. Jim Brewer did it 65 times between 1964 and 1975. Rollie Fingers holds the Major League all-time record at 201.
Yet it’s a different age for baseball. And among his contemporaries, it’s undeniable how dominant and terrific Jansen has been. The most special part is, according to Jansen, the 29-year-old hasn’t yet reached his potential.
“I don’t need to prove anything to anybody. I want to prove to myself how good I can be,” Jansen says. “I have to continue to prove myself and push myself and see how good I can be. … If you can’t improve in this game, you should stop playing.”
