Los Angeles Dodgers: The Kenley Jansen reactions are overblown

Kenley Jansen allowed a walk-off grand slam in the series finale against the San Diego Padres, which has added to the doubts around the Los Angeles Dodgers closer.

Kenley Jansen put together one of the most dominant seasons by a closer all-time in 2017 for the Los Angeles Dodgers. Since then, Jansen has looked otherwise human and has gotten criticism from the fans that still scream California Love when he takes the mound.

Jansen’s 2018 started extremely rocky and right when he got back into the swing of things he suffered from irregular heartbeat in Colorado, which took him out of action for several weeks and required offseason surgery, which went successful.

His stretch of looking human has continued into the 2019 season, where Jansen just allowed a two-out, walk-off grand slam to Hunter Renfroe that happened after two bunt attempts resulted in a base hit for the Padres.

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The criticism has since rained down on the Los Angeles Dodgers closer, with many believing that Jansen no longer has it and is not the same closer as he once was. There are multiple aspects to this criticism from the fanbase, some parts we agree with, others are a bit overblown.

First of all, there was the criticism that the Dodgers should not have used Jansen for the third day in a row in a one-out save. This game might decide how the Dodgers handle it in the future but Dave Roberts was smart to try and push Jansen to the limit and pitch him a third straight day.

He is the closer after all and prior to this three-day stretch, he had four days off. With an off day on Monday, the logic behind using Jansen certainly made sense, and while it did not work out, it at least tells the Dodgers what to do the rest of the season.

The other thought, that Jansen is not who he used to be, is definitely true but does not mean that he is a bad closer.

Dodger fans have been spoiled with how good Jansen is that they forget how rare it is to actually have an elite closer. Jansen at 75 percent is still better than 90 percent of the league and that is even true this season.

Prior to this outing, which inflated his ERA because of the grand slam, Jansen had a 2.70 ERA. It is easy to look at all the runs that Jansen has allowed but the fact remains that he is still third and saves and without the grand slam would be right up there with the ERA leaders at closer.

And sure, he is not the same Jansen that he was in 2016 and 2017 but he was literally historic in that stretch. Closers typically do not have long primes as it is, that is why Mariano Rivera is so beloved because he helped break that mold, and Jansen had as good of a two-year stretch as anyone, ever.

Only three pitchers in the history of Major League baseball have compiled a season in which they made 40 or more saves with one or fewer blown saves and an ERA under 1.40. Eric Gagne in 2003, Zach Britton in 2016 and Kenley Jansen in 2017.

Jansen also ranked seventh all-time in saves in the first nine seasons of a career and did not become the full-time closer until his third season. If we narrow the results from the third year of a closers career through the ninth year, Jansen has the fifth-most all-time.

Even more impressive, of the 56 closers all time with 150 or more saves in their first nine seasons, Jansen ranks third all-time in save percentage. That is better than Rivera AND Trevor Hoffman.

And even if the last two years have not seemed great for Jansen, he still ranks ninth in the MLB in save percentage for pitchers with 25 saves or more since 2018.

Edwin Diaz is the only other pitcher with 50 or more saves in baseball. So sure, Kenley might be ninth (which still is not bad) but he is going out there much more than most of the other guys.

So sure, he is not the same Jansen that he once was but to expect Jansen to literally be historic for his entire career is unrealistic. Jansen raised the bar so high for himself that anything that falls short is going to be disappointing for the fans.

Next. Dodgers should absolutely sign Kemp. dark

Which is fine, we are not here to tell you how to be a fan. We just have a suggestion, though: if Kenley Jansen has another frustrating outing for the Los Angeles Dodgers, just remember how bad it could be.

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