Los Angeles Dodgers: Three new options to close if not Kenley Jansen
By Jason Reed
For most of the decade, Kenley Jansen looked like one of the most dominant closers of all-time. Now, the Los Angeles Dodgers may be in the market for a new closer.
The run that Kenley Jansen put together in his prime was absolutely staggering. From 2012 to 2017, Jansen had a 2.07 ERA with 604 strikeouts in 396 and one-third innings. He recorded 221 saves.
His best year was 2017, where he was historic and finished fifth in Cy Young voting. Jansen finished the year with a 1.32 ERA and a league-leading 41 saves. He allowed 10 earned runs.
However, since then, Jansen has fallen down to earth. It started in the 2017 World Series, we really saw some of the cracks in 2018 and it started to crumble in 2019. Jansen had a career-high 3.71 ERA in 2019 with eight blown saves, the second-most in the majors.
The Los Angeles Dodgers now have the decision to make of whether or not to explore other options. And based on Andrew Friedman’s press conference, in which he did not fully commit to Jansen being the closer next year, it seems like that is a possibility.
This goes hand-in-hand with the previous report that giving Jansen the five-year, $80 million contract prior to the 2017 season was an “ownership call“. If Friedman was not convinced to pay Jansen then he definitely won’t be convinced to rely on him to be the closer in 2020.
I doubt the Dodgers trade Jansen as he can still provide innings in the bullpen and could potentially reinvent himself with some competition.
However, when Opening Day rolls around, we very well may see a different reliever warming up in the ninth. Here are some external options that the Dodgers could explore to fill that role.