GIANTS CAN TAKE LESSON ON CLOSERS FROM SERIES
With a chance to move within one victory of claiming their first World Series title in 32 years, the Los Angeles Dodgers left closer Kenley Jansen in the bullpen on Sunday night.
Jansen — who signed a five-year, $80 million deal to remain in Los Angeles prior to the 2017 season — is one of the highest-paid relievers in baseball history. But it’s no longer clear he’s the Dodgers’ best option in the ninth inning. After blowing a save in Game 4 that could have given his team a commanding 3-1 series lead, Jansen watched fellow righthander Blake Treinen take the ball in the final inning of Game 5 to close out a 4-2 win over the Tampa Bay Rays.
The Dodgers’ trust in Jansen had deteriorated ever so slightly over the past two seasons as the threetime All-Star posted the worst numbers of his major league career. But a string of shaky performances this postseason finally convinced manager Dave Roberts to hand the ball to a different pitcher in a save situation on Sunday.
Roberts’ decision was made easier by Treinen’s extensive experience as a closer with the Oakland A’s, but it’s not as if he’s been better than Jansen during the 2020 playoffs. While Treinen has pitched more frequently, he’s also posted a 4.76 ERA and had given up at least one run in three of his previous six outings prior to Sunday’s appearance.
Los Angeles has such a deep roster that it doesn’t necessarily need a lights-out option in the ninth inning to win the World Series, but it’s nonetheless stunning to see the Dodgers move away from Jansen with their championship hopes on the line.
Baseball is only four seasons removed from a winter in which Mark Melancon and Aroldis Chapman broke records for signing the largest contracts ever signed by relief pitchers. Had Jansen signed a deal with the Washington Nationals, who reportedly offered him more money than the Dodgers, the right-hander insists he also would have surpassed the high water mark for salary guaranteed to a closer.
Melancon, Chapman and Jansen have all been prominent figures during the 2020 postseason, but not in the way the teams that signed them to massive contracts originally expected.
The Giants elected to part ways with Melancon in a July 2019 trade after a tenure defined by a forearm injury and declining performance convinced them to hand the closer job to left-hander Will Smith instead. The right-hander ultimately wrapped up his four-year, $62 million deal finishing games for an Atlanta
Braves team that lost to the Dodgers in the NLCS, but Giants fans were so eager to see Melancon move on that they didn’t care what kind of success he found elsewhere.
Chapman, who signed a five-year, $86 million deal with the Yankees before the 2017 offseason, took the loss in New York’s final postseason game for the second straight year. After giving up a two-run home run to Astros second baseman Jose Altuve that ended the 2019 American League Championship Series, Chapman walked off the mound dejected again after surrendering a go-ahead home run to Mike Brosseau that helped Tampa Bay clinch the 2020 ALCS.
This weekend, it was Jansen’s turn to find the spotlight, and he wasn’t there for the reasons the Dodgers hoped.
Given the high-profile struggles baseball’s highest-paid relievers have had in recent seasons, it seems more teams are at least willing to explore the closer-by-committee model that the Rays have used to advance deep into the postseason.
Tampa Bay manager Kevin Cash had 12 different pitchers record a save during the regular season and has trusted three different relievers to close games in the postseason. Cash has attempted to play the hot hand, and by refusing to name one pitcher his closer, he’s maintained flexibility in the late innings of games.