MLB trade deadline: Kenley Jansen could be good match for Dodgers
Kenley Jansen signed his first professional contract with the Dodgers 21 years ago. He was the recipient of Clayton Kershaw on a recruited bullet. He was honored four times as a star. He saved more games than all men except three in the history of major leagues, all at the renowned temple. He won a world series with the Dodgers.
For all that Jansen has accomplished during his two decades in pro ball, there is one thing that he has not known: he was never exchanged.
This could happen in the coming days, with the commercial deadline for baseball next Thursday. While we were talking about this possibility on Friday at Angel Stadium, and how sport can be a cold affair, it dropped 11 words that have stood out.
“I thought,” he said, “I would play my whole career with the Dodgers.”
Maybe you can go home.
Dodgers are urgently buy right -handers. In Anaheim, Jansen takes advantage of a season which, according to certain measures, is his best since 2021, his last season with the Dodgers.
First of all: Jansen did not sign with the angels just to accumulate stops. He was 36 years less than 500, a milestone reached only by Mariano Rivera and Trevor Hoffman.
“I came here with a goal in mind,” said Jansen, “and the goal was to help this team turn around, to end this drought in the playoffs. That’s why I am here.
“If they move me, I would certainly feel disappointed that we have not accomplished it.”
But let’s be real: the longest drought in the playoffs in the majors is expected to reach 11 years. The angels last 4-1 / 2 games from a place in the playoff series, but they should spend six teams to sneak into the last joker point in the American league qualifiers. Baseball Prospectus projects their chances of making the 2%playoffs.
The Angels have downgraded their fifth starter this month. They organized enclosure games because they had no one in their agricultural system ready to fill the vacancy. They only have two starters that you could penny in their rotation in 2026.
They need the depth of pitching, and it would be a professional organizational fault not to obtain them by exchanging their free agents waiting, included Jansen.
Kenley Jansen launched the Dodgers against the Braves of Atlanta in match 3 of the NLC on October 19, 2021.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
For the angels, the optimal result would be a desperate team for a closer upper time to get Jansen.
However, such a team would be more likely to pay too much for the marquee names on the market, notably Jhoan Duran of the Minnesota, Emmanuel Clase of Cleveland Guardians and Felix Bautista of the Baltimore pirates, with a second level led by David Bednar of Pirates Pirates and Ryan Helsley of St. Louis Cardinals.
Dodgers hate paying too much.
Jansen has 17 stops and a blown backup, with an average of 1.00 made in backup situations and an MPM of 3.19 in total. The latter is his lowest era since 2021. At the time +, a statistic which explains the factors of league and stadium, Jansen is at 133 – or 33% better than the average of the league.
The only dodgers relieves with an era + above 133: the leftrs Alex Vesia and Jack Dreyer.
Dodgers lifts launched 49.1% of the team rounds launched; The highest percentage of any major team team. Vesia, Anthony Banda and the wounded Tanner Scott ranked among the first 20 during the appearances. Ben Casparius, who obtained his first safeguard from the major league on Friday, ranked second among major leagues readers in the sleeves launched.
In an ideal world, dodgers entered the playoffs with four main right -handers: Blake Treinen, Michael Kopech, Brusdar Graterol and Evan Phillips.
Phillips came out for the season. Treinen could come back from the injured list next week, with Kopech possibly followed next month and grapes in September, but it is risky to count on injured players to return healthy and effective.
In a career in the major league that started in 2010, Jansen was never on the injured list due to a problem of elbow or forearm, and his two relays for inflammation of the shoulders were brief.
The Dodgers could place Jansen in their mixture of right -handers with high lever effect. They wouldn’t want Jansen if he wanted to be the most undisputed.
He does the job as closer, and he approaches 500 stops. But Dodgers analysts would probably take note of their career summits in the exit speed and the hard -hit balls, and a .774 OPS against left -handers who compare themselves unfavorably to his career brand .600, and might want to spot him against a series of right -handers. This could be the sixth round, could be the ninth.
Whether it is Dodgers or another linked team, would Jansen consider a role outside the ninth round?
“At this point, it is simply a question of obtaining rings,” said Jansen. “My goal is to win. You play for that, always. I understand that there is a milestone that I am close to. But, at the end of the day, that’s why you play. You play to win. You play to win a world series.
“If I have to go and launch the sixth, seventh, eighth, I would. I am a professional. I would do what I would do better, and it’s pitch. “
Jansen said he had not abandoned this team of angels, or this season of angels. He would love to win in Anaheim. The angels could help him do it: exchange it for another pitching piece that could help them next year, then sign Jansen again during the winter.
