Dodgers Players React to Kenley Jansen Leaving Los Angeles
The Dodgers will play baseball without Kenley Jansen this year. After a decade of his closing games out for Los Angeles, he signed a deal with the Atlanta Braves for the 2022 season and will be moving on.
It’s a little bit of an odd feeling to realize that Kenley won’t be here. But that’s sort of how the last couple of offseasons have gone for the Dodgers. Departures from franchise staples like Joc Pederson, Corey Seager, Enrique Hernandez have been a recurring theme.
On Saturday morning, Dodgers players and coaches talked about Jansen’s departure. That includes Clayton Kershaw, who is now the longest-tenured player in Los Angeles.
“He’s been here every year I have. What he meant to the organization … he has dominated for a long time and he was always there every year. He went out there and did what he was asked to do. We’re going to miss him. I’m going to miss him.” – Clayton Kershaw
Dave Roberts had plenty of nice things to say about Kenley in his departure. He spoke in-depth about some of the criticism he had received from Dodgers fans over the last few years, and that it’s something fans will regret.
“I do think that we’re gonna look back and those same fans that booed him, are going to look back in hindsight and go, ‘Man, he was a heck of a Dodger. He was a Dodger great. He was still a great Dodger. And so I think that at the end of the day, that is the most important thing.” – Dave Roberts
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Austin Barnes was behind the plate for many of Jansen’s 350 career saves with the Dodgers. With how intense both of those guys are, it was always interesting to see them going into battle with each other.
“You learn a lot about him when you go to war with him, see what they’re all about. We had some hard battles with Kenley.” -Austin Barnes
But that’s it for Kenley in Los Angeles. He leaves to the Braves as quite possibly the greatest Dodgers closer of all time, and he won’t soon be forgotten here.
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I think this is a big deal. 16M for one year is what I’ve heard. That’s chump change in todays game, albeit it’s not my money. They don’t have enough starters to begin with and now they’ve lost one of the best closers in the game. Pitching is in trouble, big trouble unless Kershaw returns to 2013 form and maybe even then. I will allow it seems sometimes you can pick a guy, tell him he’s the closer and he performs, even though by historical numbers it seems like he shouldn’t. But not always. Not even often.