UPDATE: Many reports are now circulatng that the Washington Nationals made an offer to Jansen that was larger than the Dodgers’ offer, but that Jansen decided to stick with his old team due to his comfort level. The Nats offer, however, reportedly contained a lot of deferred money. Which, in all likelihood, made the offer less than that of the Dodgers in real financial terms by virture of the time value of money, interest and all of that stuff which, for some reason, people forget about when it comes to sports.
UPDATE: Tim Brown of Yahoo reports that Jansen, like Aroldis Chapman, can opt out of his contract after the 2019 season.
2:34 PM: He was the second most notable closer on the market and he has now signed the second highest contract for a closer in baseball history. Kenley Jansen is returning to the Dodgers on a five-year, $80 million deal.
Jansen, who is 29, posted 1.83 ERA and a brilliant K/BB ratio of 104/11 in 68.2 innings while saving 47 games this past year. It was his seventh season for the Dodgers overall. In that time he has an ERA of 2.20, which is a nice ERA+ of 169, while saving 189 games.
Jansen was a must-have for the Dodgers and they paid a must-have price for him. They had to given the Miami Marlins reported desire to land him. And given what other top closers got this offseason. Aroldis Chapman is probably a little better than Jansen and he got $86 million. Mark Melancon is not as good as Jansen and he got $62 million.
The $80 million may seem like a lot for a closer, but Jansen got what the market is currently dictating for his services.