(Story by Marco Stoovelaar; Photo by Henk Seppen)
   Kenley Jansen agrees to 2-year contract with Boston Red Sox
Nederlands
 SAN DIEGO, California (USA) -
Kenley Jansen has found a new team, as the righthanded closer has agreed to a 2-year contract (worth 32 million dollar) with Boston Red Sox.
This was reported by several sources on Wednesday (December 7) during the Winter Meetings in San Diego, but the deal has not yet been confirmed by his new club.
Since making his debut in the Major League, Jansen played twelve seasons for Los Angeles Dodgers.
This year, the closer played for Atlanta Braves.
With that, Jansen will play in the American League for the first time next season.
At the moment, short stops Xander Bogaerts, Didi Gregorius and Andrelton Simmons and outfielder Jurickson Profar are also Free Agents.
After the season, Bogaerts opted out of this contract with Boston Red Sox.
Gregorius was released by Philadelphia Phillies on August 4.
Two days later, Simmons was designated for assignment by Minnesota Twins.
Profar, who played for San Diego Padres, became a Free Agent after the season.
...Kenley Jansen with the Netherlands...
...Team in 2017 during the...
...World Baseball Classic...
(© Photo: Henk Seppen) |
The 35-year old, Curaçao-born Kenley Jansen signed with Los Angeles Dodgers as a catcher in November 2004.
Thereafter, he was converted into a pitcher while playing in the Minor Leagues and became one of the prime closers in Major League Baseball.
Jansen made his professional debut in 2005, playing in the Rookie League-teams of the Dodgers-organization.
During the 2007 season, still being a catcher, Jansen promoted to Single-A.
As his hitting was below average, he was informed by the Dodgers-organization that there almost surely was no future for him as a catcher, but he might become a solid pitcher.
And that's what happened.
After having begun the 2009 season as a catcher, Jansen turned to pitching in the second half of the season when he played for Inland Empire 66ers of San Bernadino in Single-A.
Things then went quickly for Jansen.
In May 2010, Jansen promoted to Double-A and late July, he was recalled to the Major League-team.
On July 24, he made his Major League-debut for Los Angeles Dodgers, pitching one inning (retiring all three batters) against New York Mets.
The next day, he earned his first save.
More milestones were reached shortly thereafter.
In August, he scored his first run and recorded his first basehit and in September, he was the winning pitcher for the first time.
In his first stay in the big league, Jansen pitched in 25 games, earning four saves with an 0.67 ERA.
After being a setup-reliever for the Dodgers in 2011, he became the team's closer in 2012.
From then on, Jansen took the mound in many games, including 75 in 2013, which still is a career-high in his career.
In 2015, Jansen became the first Dodger-pitcher with 80 or more strikeouts as a reliever in five seasons.
In June of the following season, Jansen became the all-time recordholder in Dodger-history when he recorded his 162nd save, passing Éric Gagné.
Also in 2016, he was selected to pitch in the All Star Game for the first time.
In this season, Jansen earned a career-high op 47 saves, appeared in 71 games and won the Trevor Hoffman National League Reliever of the Year Award.
In January 2017, Kenley Jansen signed a new 5-year contract with Los Angeles, worth 80 million dollar.
In the 2017 season, Jansen set a Major League-record for most strikeouts without walking a batter with 51.
The former record was 35.
For the second year in a row, Jansen was named National League Reliever of the Year.
Late in the 2018 season, Jansen was bothered again with some heart problems, which he also had in 2012 (irregular heartbeat).
He missed some games, then struggled somewhat in the remainder of the season.
In November of that year, Jansen underwent surgery.
He then came back strongly from 2019 on.
In that season, he became the 30th pitcher in history with 300 career saves.
Last year, Jansen became the 12th reliever in history with 1,000 or more strikeouts.
Being a Free Agent after the 2021 season, Jansen signed an one-yeaf contract with Atlanta Braves in March.
Despite pitching for a new team and now being 34 years old, Jansen had another fine season this year.
For the second time in his career, he led the National League with 41 saves.
He also led the league in games finished (54).
In 2014, Jansen recorded 40 or more saves for the first time in his career.
In 68 games (57 as a closer), he earned 44 saves.
With that, he became the fourth pitcher in Dodger-history to earn 40 or more saves in a season.
It was the first of four seasons with 40 or more saves.
In 2016, the righthander earned the already mentioned career-high of 47.
He then led the National League for the first time in 2017 when he also got 41 saves.
In 13 Major League-seasons, Kenley Jansen pitched in 766 games, 573 of them as a closer, which is the highest total of any current active pitcher.
His won-loss record is 42-28 and his ERA is 2.46.
In 769 innings, Jansen struckout 1,107 batters.
In 2020, Jansen won the World Series with Los Angeles.
In his career, Jansen earned 391 saves, which put him in eighth place on the All-Time list of Saves.
That list is headed by Mariano Rivera, who earned 652 saves while pitching his entire 19-year career for New York Yankees (1995-2013).
Rivera is followed by Trevor Hoffman (601) and Lee Smith (478).
Rivera, Hoffman and Smith are in the Hall of Fame all three.
Preceeding Jansen of the list is Craig Kimbrel, who after this season also became a Free Agent.
Kimbrel has 394 saves.
Jansen earned 30 or more saves in eight seasons and he played in three All Star Games.
In 2009, Kenley Jansen made his debut in the Netherlands Baseball Team as a catcher and then participated in the World Baseball Classic.
Later in the year, Jansen again played for the Orange Team during the World Championship, with the final rounds being organized in the Netherlands and Italy.
Jansen also was with the Netherlands Team during the Classic in 2013 and 2017 when he was added to the team for the Semi-Finals.
He then only appeared in the 2017 Semi-Final against Puerto Rico, striking out two batters in the ninth inning.
The Netherlands lost the game in the eleventh inning.
(December 7)
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