If the Tigers make the postseason for a 3rd consecutive 12 months in 2026, they’ll have a better with loads of expertise. Kenley Jansen is sure for Detroit on a one-year, $11 million contract with a membership possibility for 2027.
Jansen, 38, is nearly essentially the most skilled aid pitcher available on the market. He leads all energetic aid pitchers in regular-season appearances, innings, strikeouts, and saves; within the postseason, he’s second all-time, behind Mariano Rivera, in all of these classes as effectively. At his peak, Jansen was the Dodgers’ late-inning enforcer, posting sub-2.00 ERAs and pairing strikeout charges within the 40s with stroll charges below 5%. And identical to Rivera, he did all of it utilizing a cutter and little else.
Peak Jansen, after all, was about 10 years in the past. This model of Jansen is becoming a member of his fifth crew in six seasons, having bounced from Los Angeles to Atlanta to Boston and again to Los Angeles (particularly, Los Angeles of Anaheim, as we used to name it), and now all the best way as much as Detroit.
You perceive why the Tigers are doing this. Tyler Holton is an effective multi-inning man, and Will Vest is a high-leverage weapon. Aside from that, Detroit’s bullpen has been somewhat wobbly within the postseason the previous two years. That’s why the Tigers traded for Kyle Finnegan in July, then re-signed him final week. However in the case of battle-tested relievers, extra is at all times higher.
Jansen, regardless of being sufficiently old to know how one can make a mixtape, was fairly good in 2025. He posted an 8.1% stroll fee (his lowest since 2019), held opponents to a .173 batting common, and dropped his ERA from the mid-3.00s to 2.59. He saved 29 video games in 30 probabilities, which is not any small feat contemplating the Angels gained solely 72 video games in complete. That save complete means Jansen has saved 25 or extra video games yearly since 2012, the pandemic-shortened 2020 season excepted.
That’s a degree of consistency you don’t discover typically at any place, not to mention the one Jansen performs. A better normally has the life expectancy of a man who juggles sticks of dynamite for a dwelling. However, Jansen’s sport has advanced; the cutter has been his most-used pitch each season of his profession, however he began to diversify his repertoire within the late 2010s, going to a sinker and a slider. I at all times thought the latter was very fairly, however its effectiveness got here and went. Jansen additionally modified his arm angle, going from one of the vertical launch factors in baseball — he made Trey Yesavage appear to be Brad Clontz — to a extra typical three-quarters supply.
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In 2025, Jansen pitched from a excessive three-quarters arm slot, however he dedicated to enjoying the hits: 81.5% cutters. No different pitcher with not less than 50 innings threw greater than 58.2% cutters this previous season. Solely Tim Hill’s sinker and Tommy Kahnle’s changeup dominated a pitcher’s repertoire to such an extent.
However it’s not fairly the identical pitch it was 5 years in the past. The rate of Jansen’s cutter continues to be 92-93, but it surely used to have each plus rise and elite glove-side motion. It was the cutteriest cutter you may discover.
The cutter Jansen threw in 2025 had extra impartial lateral motion, however actually depraved rise: 18.8 inches of induced vertical break, 5 inches greater than some other cutter within the league.
He nonetheless throws his sinker a pair occasions an outing; that has comparable vertical motion, however with arm-side run. These pitches are constructed to get below barrels, if not miss the bat altogether; Jansen had the fifth-lowest groundball ratio amongst certified relievers in 2025. This isn’t the man you usher in with a man on first to get a double play.
Jansen does, nonetheless, unlock Vest — along with his top-10 groundball fee — to be the man who is available in with a runner on first to get a double play. In 2024, when Jason Foley bought a lot of the saves for the Tigers, Vest entered with not less than one runner on base 35 occasions in 69 appearances. In 2025, Vest entered with visitors on the bases simply 17 occasions in 64 appearances, as he held down the nearer function for a lot of the 12 months. Jansen, who’s been a better since 4 Loko was enjoyable, entered solely 5 of his 62 video games with visitors on the bases in 2025.
You possibly can see the Tigers’ bullpen shaping up: Jansen for clear save alternatives, Vest because the fireman, Finnegan for setup conditions, Holton for lefties and multi-inning bridge work. It’s not the Nasty Boys, or the 2015 Royals, but it surely’ll work.
Not less than, it ought to. As a result of I do have one or two reservations. Jansen’s 2.59 ERA is nice by nearly anybody’s normal, however each his FIP and his xERA have been greater than a run increased; he outpitched his xwOBA by 54 factors — a distinction of 18%. He additionally ran his lowest strand fee since 2017; that was the 12 months he posted a 1.32 ERA and a 15-to-1 Okay/BB ratio, so clearly no person who bought on base was headed anyplace.
Jansen’s minuscule opponent batting common is usually his personal work, as he held opponents to a .215 xBA, however he additionally ran a .195 opponent BABIP. That was the bottom mark within the league in 2025, and one of many 30 lowest of the twenty first century by a reliever with not less than 50 innings pitched. And whereas Jansen reduce his walks down, his strikeout fee went down much more, to a career-low 24.4%.
If these aren’t purple flags, they’re undoubtedly orange flags, if such a factor exists. And I deliver this up not as a result of I wish to pour chilly water on the Tigers’ large signing, or as a result of I’m licking my chops ready for the downfall of this future Corridor of Fame nearer. It’s as a result of I’ve been burned earlier than, and I wish to stop others from making the identical mistake.
A few 12 months in the past, the Dodgers spent some huge cash on a geriatric Millennial nearer, Kirby Yates, who’d simply run a 1.17 ERA (however with method higher underlying numbers than Jansen’s) and a .168 opponent BABIP. Yates quadrupled his ERA in a single extraordinarily poor season in Los Angeles, and ended the season damage and beneath alternative degree. Closers of their late 30s can collapse in a rush; it is advisable to preserve your head on a swivel.
So whereas I imagine Jansen can do a job for the Tigers, who want all the assistance they’ll get, he wouldn’t have been my first selection on how one can spend $11 million within the aid pitcher market this winter. Our Prime 50 Free Brokers checklist had the massive man ranked no. 42 total, and anticipated him to earn $9 million over one 12 months.
I’m keen to name $11 million with a membership possibility shut sufficient, particularly in a market the place — as I discussed within the submit about Gregory Soto — each reliever contract appears to be coming in excessive by a pair million {dollars}. But when I have been Tigers president of baseball operations Scott Harris, and I had about $11 million to spend on a ninth-inning man, I might’ve gone with Emilio Pagán, who went again to Cincinnati for 2 years at $10 million per. I’d a lot relatively have had Robert Suarez or Devin Williams at $15 million a 12 months.
In fact, the tough factor about free company is that the gamers get to decide on the place they play. Would Pagán have moved all his stuff for a similar sum of money when he’s already snug in Cincinnati, and pitching for a crew with an identical aggressive scenario? Most likely not. The Tigers have been higher than the Braves in 2025, however not for a number of years previous to that, and other people appear to like enjoying in Atlanta; it’d’ve taken far more than three years and $45 million to tempt Suarez to Detroit. And whereas Williams may come to remorse subjecting himself to the ludicrous media scrutiny that comes with enjoying for the Mets, the pizza is 1,000,000 occasions higher in New York than Detroit.
So whereas Jansen isn’t the perfect ninth-inning man for a playoff crew, not less than at this level in his profession, possibly that is one of the best the Tigers may do with what they’d. Based mostly on the earlier 15 years of baseball historical past, he’ll most likely be superb.
