Dodgers’ Dave Roberts says Kenley Jansen might be used in non-save situations
LOS ANGELES — After the Dodgers’ workout on Tuesday, Dave Roberts was asked if Kenley Jansen’s season of fickle reliability might prompt him to use someone else to close games at times in the postseason.
“I don’t see that,” Roberts said then. “I know Kenley is our closer. I don’t see that as an option.
“He’s done it and I want him to have the ball at the end of the game.”
Sitting in the dugout before Game 2 of their National League Division Series on Friday, though, something had shifted. Roberts said he expected Jansen to pitch in the game (he did not) but “not necessarily in a save situation.” Roberts said he “could see an eighth-inning situation” where Jansen came into the game but did not continue through the ninth, leaving someone else to close the game.
“It’s about getting outs,” Roberts said. “He understands that and appreciates that.
“Don’t read too much into it. I’m just saying he’s in such a good place – I’m telling you this is as good a place as he’s been in two years.”
Two years would take it back to the 2017 postseason, when Jansen’s aura of invincibility was punctured by the Houston Astros twice in the World Series – in Game 2 by Marwin Gonzalez and in the 10th inning of Game 5 by Alex Bregman.
Jansen has not been the same pitcher since. A hamstring injury and a return of his heart problems, which required offseason surgery, reduced him in 2018. Diminished velocity and inconsistent movement on his cut fastball have set him on a journey to remake himself as a pitcher this year. The season was strewn with failures, a career-high eight blown saves and another new experience for Jansen – fan disapproval.
But Roberts insists Jansen is “in a really good place” mentally as the Dodgers again embark on an October quest which Jansen could sink if the Dodgers rely on him as singularly as they have in past postseasons.
“This is the best frame of mind he’s been in,” Roberts said. “So that speaks to his openness to pitch whenever there are important outs to be had. He understands that. It’s very telling. There’s no demotion. I don’t know how it’s going to play out. He’s our closer. But that doesn’t mean that there’s important outs in the eighth inning that we need him to get.”
In order to keep Jansen in his “best frame of mind,” the Dodgers are essentially putting him in a bubble.
“I’m going to have daily conversations with Kenley,” Roberts said. “But the less that is said from him and about him – the better.”
Jansen has taken this to heart. When asked to respond to Roberts’ comments that “outside voices, noise, distractions, were starting to bleed into his head as far as sequencing, opinions on his performance,” Jansen declined to discuss anything of the kind.
“I’m not talking about that,” he said before the NLDS started. “I don’t want to hear it either. Thank you.”
Jansen said his focus is on the present, not anything in the past.
“Enjoy the moment,” he said of his approach. “I love it. Even though it comes with all the pressure, enjoy it. This is what we play for and you don’t know if you’re going to get back to this level of the season.”
The 32-year-old Jansen recently became the 30th pitcher in baseball history to record 300 saves in his career. But the hardened outer shell required in that role has always been more affected by Jansen than truly a part of his character. Whatever self-doubts Jansen might be carrying around, “most of it is self-induced, to be honest with you,” Roberts said.
“We got him back to eliminating that,” said Roberts, who believes he has “a great, honest relationship” with Jansen forged over the ups and downs of the past four years. “He’s got to get back to just pitching and worry about executing pitches. That right there, I think he’s done that. And if he continues to do that, the results will be there.
“I think he’s simplified it as ‘When I get the call, I go pitch.’ It doesn’t matter what the situation is. It doesn’t matter who’s hitting. It doesn’t matter what people outside are saying. I think that’s the best place anybody could be in. I think that’s the place everyone should be in.”