The Detroit Tigers and reliever Kenley Jansen are in agreement on a one-year, $11 million contract with a 2027 club option, pending a physical, per ESPN’s Jeff Passan.
Jansen, at 38, is nearing the end of his storied career. With 476 career saves, Jansen is at the top of the leaderboard for saves among active players. He is also fourth all-time in the category behind Hall-of-Fame players Lee Smith, Trevor Hoffman and Mariano Rivera.
He currently needs three saves to pass Smith and be third all-time, but will likely never catch Hoffman and Rivera, who both finished their career with over 600 saves.
A World Series champion, four-time all-star, and two-time NL Hoffman Relief Award winner, Jansen seems destined to land in Cooperstown sooner rather than later.
But before he makes it there, he will land in Detroit.
What Does Jansen Bring To The Table?
Entering his 17th season in the big leagues, Jansen carries an illustrious resume.
While the height of his career (12 years) was spent with the Los Angeles Dodgers, where he won a World Series in 2020, he has carved out a great career for himself in the four-plus years he has spent outside a Dodgers uniform.
In 2022, he led the league in saves with the Atlanta Braves.
In 2023, he had an All-Star Game appearance with the Boston Red Sox, where he spent two years before heading to Anaheim.
Last season with the Los Angeles Angels, Jansen put up elite numbers once again. In 62 games with the Angels, Jansen had 2.4 Wins Above Replacement, with a 2.59 ERA and 29 saves in 30 opportunities.
His cutter is still the bread-and-butter pitch that he used 81.4% of the time last season. While it doesn’t generate the same amount of whiffs it used to, Jansen’s cutter is still thrown at an elite level.
Opposing batters hit just .164 against his cutter in 2025, a great improvement from .210 the previous year, and had a .302 slugging percentage against it.
His extension is still elite among pitchers at the 92nd percentile per Baseball Savant.
Detroit’s Bullpen Situation
Detroit’s bullpen was shaky to say the least last season. Will Vest, the closer for much of the season, was 23 out of 30 in save opportunities.
Tommy Kahnle wasn’t any better, going 9/14 in save opportunities.
This led to the Tigers acquiring Kyle Finnegan from the Washington Nationals at last year’s trade deadline.
Finnegan was a proven closer with the Nationals, racking up 131 saves in five years. In 16 games with Detroit, Finnegan had a 1.50 ERA, earning a two-year, $19 million contract from the Tigers in this year’s free agency.
Now, Detroit has a proven 1-2 punch with Jansen and Finnegan in the back end of the bullpen, joining Vest.
Jansen should be expected to be the primary closer for the Tigers and will improve a team that made it to the ALDS in 2025.
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