Kenley

Jansen

Jansen receives a $2 million buyout and heads back to the open market. The 39-year-old veteran stopper is just two saves away from joining Mariano Rivera and Trevor Hoffman as the only closers to reach the lofty 500-save plateau. He wound up converting just 22 of 28 saves to go along with an underwhelming 3.20 ERA (3.59 xERA) across 45 innings during his Tigers debut last year. He’s still capable of closing games, but his days as an elite stopper have been over for a couple years.

It didn’t look like Jansen would be needed as the Tigers took an 8-2 lead into the eighth inning, but after a five-run uprising by the Pirates in that frame, Jansen came on to close it out. He needed just 13 pitches (eight strikes) to retire the Pirates in order, tallying the 498th save of his career. With two games left to play, there’s still a chance that Jansen could reach that illustrious 500 number before all is said and done.

It didn’t look like Jansen would be needed as the Tigers faced an early 8-2 deficit in the game, but he was called upon after a five-run rally in the eighth inning flipped the game around. Jansen made it look easy in this one, getting Sam Antonacci on a fly out to left, Randal Grichuk on a fly ball to right and Munetaka Murakami on strikes to end it. The 38-year-old closer is now just three saves away from 500 for his career.

Protecting a one-run lead, Jansen walked George Springer to start the ninth inning before striking out Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and getting Alejandro Kirk to hit into a game-ending double play. It was his 20th save of the season and 496th of his career. Jansen has a 3.43 ERA this year, though he’s blown six save opportunities.

The Tigers entered the ninth inning with a comfortable 6-1 lead, but after the Rockies pushed a run across and had a couple of runners on base with two outs, Tigers’ skipper A.J. Hinch went to his closer to finish it out. The 38-year-old hurler got Connor Norby to strike out swinging to end the game. Jansen has now converted 19 of his first 25 save chances on the season while posting a 3.60 ERA.

Jansen got the call to protect a one-run lead in the final frame and immediately made things interesting by issuing a leadoff walk to Kody Clemens. He managed to wriggle out of the jam completely unscathed by coaxing a harmless fly ball from Ryan Jeffers before getting Josh Bell to hit into a game-ending double play. The 38-year-old veteran has converted 18 of 24 save opportunities this season to go along with a pedestrian 3.63 ERA across 39 2/3 innings of work.

Jansen came in to try and clean up Drew Sommers in the eighth inning and immediately let a three-run lead disappear after a bases loaded walk and two-run single. No runs were charged to him because he entered the game with the bases already loaded, but this was a poor showing from the legend.

Jansen’s save was his 17th of the year. He retired the side in order while recording a strikeout against the Rays Tuesday. It was career save No. 493 for Jansen, who’s third on the all-time saves list behind Hall-of-Famers Mariano Rivera and Trevor Hoffman.

It’s the fifth time in his long career that Jansen has allowed two homers; it happened once in 2013, twice in 2018, once in 2022 and once last year, when the Tigers actually homered off him three times while he was pitching for the Angels. The blown save was Jansen’s fifth of the year but first since May 24. As much as this loss hurt, Jansen, who had a 1.35 ERA since the beginning of July, should remain the Tigers’ primary closer for now.

Jansen’s save was his 16th of the season. He retired the side in order while recording two strikeouts. It was career save No. 492 for Jansen, who has allowed only two runs in his last 14 appearances (1.37 ERA). He has a 3.74 ERA on the year.