{"id":346146,"date":"2025-12-13T21:25:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-13T21:25:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/346146\/"},"modified":"2025-12-13T21:25:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-13T21:25:07","slug":"detroit-tigers-sign-veteran-closer-to-bolster-bullpen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/346146\/","title":{"rendered":"Detroit Tigers sign veteran closer to bolster bullpen"},"content":{"rendered":"

DETROIT — The Detroit Tigers have signed veteran closer Kenley Jansen to a one-year deal.<\/p>\n

ESPN first reported the agreement<\/a>, which includes a club option for 2027. USA Today reported that he will earn $11 million in 2026<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Jansen, a 38-year-old native of Curacao, has pitched in parts of 16 big-league seasons for four different teams. He has 476 career saves, fourth on the all-time list<\/a> behind Hall-of-Famers Lee Smith (478), Trevor Hoffman (601) and Mariano Rivera (652). <\/p>\n

He\u2019s the second veteran right-handed reliever added by the Tigers in the last week, joining Kyle Finnegan, who agreed to a two-year deal<\/a> that has not yet been publicly announced. <\/p>\n

Jansen came up as a catcher in the Los Angeles Dodgers system — that was his primary position with the Great Lakes Loons in Midland — and had a strong arm but a weak bat. He started the conversion to pitcher in 2009 and then made his MLB debut in 2010. By 2012, he was the Dodgers\u2019 closer, a tenure that would last for most of the next decade.<\/p>\n

After leaving L.A., Jansen pitched for the Atlanta Braves in 2022, the Boston Red Sox in 2023 and 2024 and the Los Angeles Angels in 2025. <\/p>\n

Last year, he had a 2.59 ERA (3.98 FIP) in 59 innings, striking out 57 and walking 19. <\/p>\n

Six of the 17 earned runs he allowed all season came in a partial inning against the Tigers on May 2. Riley Greene, Colt Keith and Javier B\u00e1ez all homered off Jansen. Greene later came up again in the inning and hit a second homer against a new pitcher, becoming the first player in MLB history to hit two home runs in the ninth inning of a game.<\/p>\n

Jansen pitched against the Tigers the following day, earning a save, and finished the season with a 1.97 ERA in 50 innings after his meltdown<\/a> against Detroit.<\/p>\n

The Tigers had identified the bullpen as a major area of need this winter. The Jansen and Finnegan join Will Vest and lefty Tyler Holton as having locked-up spots in the pen. <\/p>\n

The Tigers will need to drop one player from the 40-man roster when the signings of Finnegan and Jansen are finalized. <\/p>\n

TIGERS\u2019 40-MAN ROSTER (41)<\/p>\n

Left-handed pitchers (6): Tyler Holton, Bailey Horn, Brant Hurter, Jake Miller, Tarik Skubal, Drew Sommers.<\/p>\n

Right-handed pitchers (15): Drew Anderson, Beau Brieske, Kyle Finnegan, Jack Flaherty, Sawyer Gipson-Long, Brenan Hanifee, Kenley Jansen, Jackson Jobe, Ty Madden, Troy Melton, Casey Mize, Keider Montero, Reese Olson, Dylan Smith, Will Vest.<\/p>\n

Catchers (4): Dillon Dingler, Thayron Liranzo, Jake Rogers, Eduardo Valencia.<\/p>\n

Infielders (9): Javier B\u00e1ez, Trei Cruz, Jace Jung, Colt Keith, Hao-Yu Lee, Zach McKinstry, Trey Sweeney, Spencer Torkelson, Gleyber Torres.<\/p>\n

Outfielders (7): Kerry Carpenter, Riley Greene, Jahmai Jones, Justyn-Henry Malloy, Parker Meadows, Wenceel P\u00e9rez, Matt Vierling.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DETROIT — The Detroit Tigers have signed veteran closer Kenley Jansen to a one-year deal. ESPN first reported…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":346147,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[64,63,591,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-346146","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-mlb","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/346146","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=346146"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/346146\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/346147"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=346146"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=346146"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=346146"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}