Tigers sign closer Kenley Jansen

Kenley Jansen (Arturo Pardavilla III, Wikimedia Commons)

The Detroit Tigers have signed one of the most experienced and successful veteran closers in Major League Baseball history. On Saturday, they came to terms with closer Kenley Jansen of Willemstad, Curacao on a one-year contract worth $11 million according to Spotrac.

Jansen is joining his fifth MLB team. He was previously with the Los Angeles Dodgers for 12 seasons (2010 to 2021), the Atlanta Braves in 2022, the Boston Red Sox in 2023 and 2024, and the Los Angeles Angels in 2025.

While with the Dodgers, Jansen was a three-time National League All-Star (2016, 2017 and 2018), led the National League in saves in 2017 (41), and won a World Series (2020). With the Braves in 2022, Jansen once again led the National League in saves with 41. With the Red Sox  in 2023, Jansen was an American League All-Star.

In 2025 with the Angels, Jansen pitched 62 games and had a record of five wins and four losses with an earned run average of 2.59. During 59 innings pitched, Jansen gave up 37 hits, 17 earned runs, eight home runs, and 19 walks, to go along with 29 saves, 57 strikeouts and an outstanding WHIP (walks and hits per innings pitched) of 0.95.

Jansen is the Dodgers all-time leader in saves by quite a wide margin. He has 350 saves all-time. Second on the Dodgers list is Canadian Eric Gagne of Montreal, Quebec, who has 161 saves. Jansen is also fourth all-time in MLB saves with 476. He is only behind New York Yankees Hall of Famer Mariano Rivera of Panama, Panama (652), Hall of Famer Trevor Hoffman of Bellflower, California (601), and Hall of Famer Lee Smith of Jamestown, Louisiana (478).