The Dodgers are close to a deal to bring back closer Kenley Jansen, reports Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports (on Twitter). It would seem that Monday has the makings of a big day for the Dodgers and their fans, as multiple reports today have indicated that the Dodgers are also progressing toward a four-year deal to re-sign Justin Turner. MLB Network’s Jon Morosi tweets that Jansen’s deal is expected to be a five-year pact.
Los Angeles entered the offseason with a number of free agents coming off the books, but the three priorities for the team were long said to be Jansen, Turner and Rich Hill. If both the Turner and Jansen deals are completed, the Dodgers will have succeeded in bringing back their three top free agents, though, clearly there’ll still be some work to be done over the remainder of the winter. Notably, the club could look for upgrades at second base, in the corner outfield and in the bullpen (even after bringing back Jansen).
The 29-year-old Jansen pitched to a scintillating 1.83 ERA with 13.6 K/9, 1.4 BB/9 and a 30 percent ground-ball rate in 68 2/3 innings with the Dodgers last season. That performance led his first All-Star selection, although the very fact that it was just the first of his career is somewhat remarkable. Jansen has been one of baseball’s very best relievers since the moment he debuted as a 22-year-old in 2010, logging a career 2.20 ERA with 13.9 K/9 against 2.6 BB/9 in 408 2/3 regular-season innings. He ranks fourth in strikeout percentage and third in total strikeouts among qualified relievers in that time, and only six relievers have mustered a better earned run average in that time frame.
In addition to the Dodgers, Jansen drew interest from the Yankees, Nationals and Marlins this winter, though the Yankees’ bid to land him likely ended when they inked Aroldis Chapman to a five-year, $86MM contract. While Miami’s emergence as a suitor for Jansen came as a surprise, their efforts to land a top closer appear to be legitimate; they reportedly offered Chapman $87MM over a five-year term, and Marlins skipper Don Mattingly has been said to be personally recruiting Jansen. Signing in Miami would’ve reunited Jansen with not only Mattingly but also former teammates Dee Gordon and A.J. Ellis (who agreed to a deal with Miami last week), but it appears that Jansen’s sights are set on remaining in Dodger blue.
It’ll be interesting to see if Jansen is able to top Chapman’s overall contract, which currently stands as the all-time record contract issued to a reliever. If he’s able to do so, he’ll join Chapman and Mark Melancon as the third reliever this year to set a new benchmark for largest contract ever, although there are other considerations at play as well. Notably, Chapman received an opt-out clause after the third year of his contract, and one would expect that Chapman’s representatives at Wasserman sought the same type of provision, which has become increasingly common throughout baseball contracts.
In other news, the Earth is still round and water wet.
Well if you frequent Dodger fan sites, you would learn that 80% of the trolls there KNOW these things:
Friedman is a joke
The Dodgers are broke and won’t sign anyone
Kershaw will opt and in 2018 and sign with the Rangers
Seager will likely be traded soon
Doesn’t seem like you follow the Dodgers much.
He was being facetious
Ha.. Joke is on me then.
If you follow any of the bitter anti dodger fans on here, you sound just like one of them.
The thing I know is that is that vtadave is an a$$hole LOL
NOOOO I wanted him out of the NL west!!
Same..
Awesome sauce! Now trade for a 2B and bring back Blanton and call it a team!
As a Marlins fan….YEEESSSSSSS!!! Yes! YES!! Thank you
Same, now we can add depth to the roster. Which this team needs to be competitive threw September.
By depth do you mean meaningless underperforming players? Always the same crap.
Or we can go sign ziegler, feliz, nova/hammel, and napoli/Reynolds and call it an offseason. Can we designate locke too, or too early? Lol
Locke is probably gonna have to start the year in the bullpen if we add another starter which I hope we do but dought we do it.
Supposedly Jansen is big about feeling comfortable (sort of like the story w. Strausburg), so I expected him to re-up w. LAD. Too bad, I had hoped the Mets (even with their cheap ass owners) may realize that he’d be a great get.
LOL the Mets.
Wow this is a very pleasant surprise. The whole payroll issue made it seem like we would only keep 1 of the big 3 but now all 3 could be back. Very good
Good news for dodgers fans and bad for the other NL West teams. Is it just me or I feel like Justin Turner’s contract is a steal? Getting paid 16 million annually and thats the same as fowler, chapman, desmondm melancon. I would rather have turner than those players since he is a arguably top5 3rd baseman with good defense. But I’m pretty curious about Jansen contract.
He’s definitely a top 5 3B in the NL West
Lol
I wouldn’t say it’s a steal. He’s definitely better than Fowler or Desmond but he’s riskier than everyone else. His greatness came out of nowhere a few years ago. After a kinda-down season, most teams are worried Good Turner will disappear as mysteriously as he arrived.
At least with chapman and melancon etc you can be pretty sure they will be very good players in 2017 barring injury. Turners stretch just isn’t long enough to warrant that type of confidence.
THANK GOD!!!
Also, I don’t understand the need to pursue any corner outfield help, or any for that matter. Assuming all players are at full health we have Toles/Thompson/Hernandez/Van Slyke available for LF, Pederson/Hernandez for CF, Puig/Ethier/Thompson for RF. Plenty of depth and platoonability there. I would like to see us dip into our farm system a bit to trade for a solid innings eater along with an everyday 2nd baseman. CRAZY TRADE IDEA ALERT –
Verlander/Kinsler + a smidge of cash for DeLeon/Verdugo/Calhoun plus their choice of two lower level, high upside arms.
Overall, good day to be a Dodgers fan!
Not nearly enough to land Verlander AND Kinsler. That’s maybe enough to land Verlander but not both. Verlander is coming off one of his best years and a 2nd place finish in the AL Cy Young. He’d alone require a package similar to Sale.
I respectfully disagree. Sale’s value was in large part due to his team friendly contract. The Tigers could use some financial flexibility and tying up almost $60 million annually to two players (Verlander and Miggy) was a pretty dumb idea in the first place. Receiving DeLeon/Calhoun gives two elite prospects close to contributing at the MLB level, Verdugo is a possible speed/power combo from the left side (which Detroit could use) plus a couple of arms. I would make that deal from both standpoints.
I would also prefer Dozier to Kinsler, but the Twins don’t have any pitchers I would want in Dodger blue (no to Santana), so I killed two birds with one stone there.
That’s too much money on the books. I’d rather trade Calhoun and organizational filler for a solid but not flashy 2B on a short contract.
I will agree that today is a good day!
I would agree if the Dodgers weren’t so good at flexing those financial muscles. Also good with your idea, I would love to swoop up Dozier without trading any blue chippers, although I’m sure 29 teams would line up to do so.
Hopefully after these signings, we pick up a legit 2nd baseman. also, trade for braun for sure. I’m not concerned about payroll since in the next two years we get rid of 60million+ with the expiring contract for gonzales,eithier,crawford,kazmir.
How is this team still spending money? The MLB is a joke in how it caters to big market teams.
There needs to be some major changes to level playing field for all teams. Look at the NFL’s salary cap model. Create some sort of system. Also, hold separate high school, college, and international drafts. Require teams to be within the agreed upon salary cap with very harsh penalties to anyone who goes under or over. Problems solved.
Ah yes. The NFL and their garbage players association where nobody gets paid….lol
Kia
Not sure if you heard, but a new Collective Bargaining Agreement was recently signed. A salary cap is about as likely as the pope giving birth to a baby human this week.
Dodgers havent spent more then 100 million on any free agent in the freidman era. Actually learn about how teams spend before you make ignorant comments. There plenty of teams out there that spend as much as the dodgers do, we are just still paying some players from colletis time, in 2 years the payroll will drop by alot
MLB just revised the luxury tax rule that every dollar spent over the luxury tax line hits a 50% tax margin. What that means is every dollar the Dodgers spend over the $195M threshold, they’ll be charged 50 cents by the MLB. The Dodgers already have a payroll just north of $187M, so with these two additions, the Dodgers will end up exceeding that threshold and paying this tax; the only question is how much they exceed.
I think you’re wrong. Allowing teams to allocate their resources more freely actually more often causes them to misallocate them than not. Look at the Angels and Yankees.
Teams feelinf the need to shell out high eight figure deal for a reliever, who, at best, pitches an inning about every other day and can blow up at any moment is one of the greatest forces of parity in the league, imho.
Would you guys take back Dee gordon? Lol, I don’t expect anything close to what the Marlins gave up for him, but anything will do for me
Its “Magic Time” to break the Dodgers bank.
wow 5 years 80 million for Jansen. (Jim Bowden reports).
Dam, 16 million a year for jansen and turner is a steal. Plus less than Chapman!!!
Damn…. he must’ve needed a World Series blown game 7 to get that extra 6 million.
Nats need a closer: no Jansen (LAD), Melancon (SF), Chapman (NYY), Wade Davis (CHC). Wow! Hilarious how many times they miss out. They might have to overpay to get the guys they want. LOL
Also worth mentioning how complacent they seem to not land one of the top closers. I thought they learned their lesson with Storen/Soriano/Papelbon, but we’re at the crossroads again without a top-line closer. The best option at this point is trading all our marbles for a Alex Colome, who only has one good year on record, or David Robertson, who we should’ve gotten in the Eaton deal (without needing to add anything on the Nats’ side). I think the Nats have a potential in-house options in Kelley, Treinen, and Glover, but as a contending team with WS aspirations, the closer role requires tenured excellence. One direction I’d like the Nats to go without requiring signing Jansen or trading for a closer is adding through FA. I’d be on-board with a FA signing of BOTH Holland and Ziegler. That’s, first, adding lots of closing experience and, second, adding 2 very quality arms to an already strong bullpen.