Coming off a career-high in innings pitched last year between the regular and postseason, the Los Angeles Dodgers crafted a plan for Kenley Jansen to ease into things so he can remain fresh throughout the course of another long season and expected playoff run.
Jansen looked like his dominant self for much of Spring Training, retiring all but one of 15 batters faced in 4.2 innings across five appearances. There was a bit of an interesting development though, as Jansen’s velocity was down in those games.
That carried into the regular season on Friday, with Jansen making his debut against the San Francisco Giants. Jansen’s velocity was again below what’s typical for him, and the result was allowing a go-ahead home run in the ninth inning.
Joe Panik’s solo home run gave the San Francisco Giants their second 1-0 victory at Dodger Stadium in as many games.
Following the loss, Jansen was asked if the dip in velocity was a concern for him, to which he responded with a question of his own, via Ken Gurnick of MLB.com:
“Who cares?” Jansen responded repeatedly when pressed about average velocity that at 89 mph was down about 3 miles an hour from last year, after a Spring Training in which he admittedly took it easy for preservation after a grueling 2017. “It’s a long season. It’s one game. Come back tomorrow and get them out. I’m not frustrated at all. Keep focused.”
Jansen is right in that velocity isn’t the most important thing for a pitcher that throws a cutter that’s usually as devastating as he does. A big reason for his past success was his ability to throw that cutter in the mid or upper 90s, however.
The season is early and Jansen may still be building up his arm strength, so as it currently stands, he is the least of the Dodgers worries right now considering the team has yet to score a run and has just seven hits in 18 innings.
