When Kenley Jansen struggled last season he was relegated to watching from the bullpen as the Los Angeles Dodgers stuck with Julio Urias to win their first World Series since 1988.
That prompted questions regarding Jansen’s status as closer heading into the offseason, but Dodgers manager Dave Roberts quashed those during the winter, again in Spring Training, and with some regularity during the 2021 campaign as well.
Roberts not only has maintained his confidence in Jansen, but said the right-hander being the team’s closer puts the Dodgers at their most optimal state in the bullpen.
While Jansen has taken some lumps this season, he also reached personal milestones. The latest of which was 1,000 career strikeouts, which Jansen said was difficult to fathom after beginning his career as a catcher, via SportsNet LA:
“It’s awesome. What can I say? All the hard work, it just starts from me trusting in people. Always trusting in people who saw the talent. I never saw this happening in ’09. For me to get that chance to get on the mound, and things happen so fast, I’m just enjoying this ride and trying to get better every day. It’s a well-accomplished goal, it’s great, and we’ve just got to continue to go. The whole goal is to win a championship. … But individually, it’s awesome.”
Jansen’s 1,000th career strikeout ended the inning and the baseball ended up with Justin Turner, who mimicked as though he was going to throw it into the stands at Petco Park. The ball was of course kept in safe possession and Jansen now plans to put it on display:
“I think I’m going to frame it with the jersey, like I did when I became the (Dodgers’) all-time saves leader. I’m going to do the same thing with the hat, the ball and also the jersey.”
Jansen is in his 12th big league season and resides as the longest-tenured player in the Dodgers organization. He previously reached another impressive milestone this year with his 321st career save against the Arizona Diamondbacks on May 19.
That moved him into sole possession of third place for most saves with a single team in MLB history. Jansen is behind only Rivera’s 652 with the Yankees and Hoffman’s 552 with the Padres.
Jansen previously passed Eric Gagne to become the Dodgers’ all-time saves leader in 2016.
Roberts proud of Jansen
Jansen is the lone closer Roberts has had in his tenure as Dodgers manager, and he was honored to be witness to history. “It adds to his souvenir collection. That’s a great milestone,” Roberts said of Jansen reaching 1,000 career strikeouts.
“It just shows he’s withstood the test of time. To accrue 1,000 strikeouts with the same team, it’s a short list of guys that have done that, and both are in the Hall of Fame. Congratulations to Kenley, and I’m very lucky to be a part of it.”
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