Boston Red Sox closer Kenley Jansen has been baseball’s most dominant closer for the last decade.
Jansen’s 342 saves across the past ten seasons is 84 more than the player with the second-most saves (Craig Kimbrel) in that span.
While the 36-year-old has continued to pitch at an elite rate over the past two seasons, he has accrued fewer saves in each of these two seasons than in any other year since 2013 (aside from the pandemic-shortened 2020 season).
The reason for this? The Boston Red Sox haven’t afforded him as many save opportunities because they haven’t won as many games.
Jansen is set to be an unrestricted free agent after this season. And a September 14 article from MassLive’s Chris Cotillo (that was titled, “As Kenley Jansen reflects on ‘disappointing’ Red Sox time, Yankees loom as threat”) suggests that Jansen could be joining Boston’s arch-rival next season.
“According to major league sources, the Yankees made a serious run at Jansen before he signed a two-year, $32 million contract with Boston in Dec. 2022,” Cotillo wrote. “With mercurial All-Star Clay Holmes heading for free agency after the season, it’s more than likely the Yankees look to add a big-time piece at the back end of their relief corps. And Jansen, at nearly 37 years old, just wants to win wherever he goes next.”
Jansen has made it clear that all he cares about at this stage in his career is winning. “I’m always gonna look for winning. Contending,” Jansen said in the article. “That’s going to be my priority. My agent will do the rest. I want to be in a situation where we can contend for a title. That’s it.”
Jansen has pitched in three World Series in his career, and won a 2020 championship with the Los Angeles Dodgers. He’s also a four-time MLB All-Star and two-time NL Reliever of the Year.
Given that New York will be keen to sign a top-tier closer this offseason, Jansen — who’s 2-0 with a 1.35 ERA, 19 strikeouts, and 9 saves in 14 appearances against the Yankees in his career — could be wearing pinstripes next season.
