Dodgers To Re-Sign Kenley Jansen
By Steve Adams | December 12, 2016 at 6:35pm CDT
6:35pm: While the deal doesn’t include no-trade protection, it does come with an assignment bonus, Rosenthal tweets.
2:49pm: Barry Svrluga of the Washington Post reports (on Twitter) that the Nationals were willing to offer more, though their offer contained deferred money. USA Today’s Bob Nightengale tweets that the Nats were willing to offer “as much as $5 million more.”
Jansen’s agent, Adam Katz, confirmed to Joel Sherman of the New York Post (all links to Sherman on Twitter) that the Nats offered more: “The Nationals’ presentation was exceptional and generous and for more money. They conducted recruitment of this player in a high caliber professional way. Kenley and I were very impressed. At the end of the day Kenley loves Los Angeles, his Dodger family, the fans here and although money was a factor, it wasn’t the most important thing.”
Of course, the deferrals involved in Washington’s offer could very well have brought the present-day value of the deal south of $80MM, and there’s been no word that the Nats were willing to include an opt-out in the deal, either (and such clauses add significant value to the deal as well, as MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz explained when attempting to monetize opt-out clauses last winter). As such, while the Nationals’ offer may have been for more money on paper, the overall value of the proposal could’ve been lower than the Dodgers’ offer.
1:29pm: Jansen can opt out of his new five-year deal after three seasons, reports Yahoo’s Tim Brown (on Twitter), who also notes that Jansen was offered more money elsewhere. (As noted below, the Marlins are reported to have topped $80MM in their best offer.)
12:38pm: The Dodgers and closer Kenley Jansen are in agreement on a five-year deal worth $80MM, reports Jim Bowden of ESPN and MLB Network Radio on SiriusXM (Twitter link). FOX’s Ken Rosenthal had reported that the Dodgers and Jansen were closing in on a deal shortly prior to Bowden’s report, and MLB Network’s Jon Morosi had tweeted that it was expected to be a five-year deal.
[Related: Updated Los Angeles Dodgers Depth Chart]
The 29-year-old Jansen is fresh off what was arguably the best season of his excellent career. In 68 2/3 regular-season innings, Jansen notched a full-season career-best 1.83 ERA with 13.6 K/9, 1.4 BB/9 and a 30 percent ground-ball rate to go along with a career-best 47 saves. That performance earned him his first All-Star berth, though how he’d gone five full seasons without an All-Star appearance is a mystery, as Jansen has compiled a 2.20 ERA with 13.9 K/9 against 2.6 BB/9 in 408 2/3 innings in the regular season over the life of his career. He’s never posted an ERA higher than 2.85 in his career, and even that mark came back in 2011. Since that time, his control has improved remarkably, and his ERA numbers have dipped accordingly. Dating back to the 2010 season, Chapman ranks third among all qualified relievers in total strikeouts, fourth in strikeout percentage and seventh in earned run average.
Jansen entered the winter as one of the market’s premium free agents and drew significant interest from the Yankees (who instead re-signed Aroldis Chapman), Nationals and Marlins — the latter of whom reportedly made an offer to Jansen that was greater than the five-year, $80MM pact to which he has agreed with the Dodgers. (It’s not known whether the Marlins’ offer included any sort of opt-out clause or deferred money, however.) In the end, he’ll join Rich Hill (three years, $48MM) back in Los Angeles, and that pair seems likely to be rejoined by Justin Turner, who is reportedly close to a four-year deal to return to the Dodgers. That trio comprised the Dodgers’ top three offseason targets, and while it figures to cost the club just shy of $200MM, that expenditure will net president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman, GM Farhan Zaidi and the rest of the Dodgers’ front-office staff three of the winter’s top open-market talents.
The Dodgers already projected to have a $203.9MM payroll even without Jansen in the fold, and adding his average annual value to the mix — we don’t yet know the official breakdown of the deal — should push the Dodgers’ 2017 payroll up to $219.4MM (via Jason Martinez of MLBTR/Roster Resource). Further adding Turner at a reported $16MM annual value would push next year’s overall commitments upwards of $235MM, though the luxury tax is calculated on the average annual value of a team’s total contracts as opposed to the bottom-line payroll figure.
The Dodgers are known to be working to decrease their payroll, which may seem counter-intuitive after they’ve spent nearly $200MM on their top three free agents (assuming the Jansen deal gets done). However, the Dodgers will also see their commitments to Alex Guerrero and Carl Crawford (roughly $28MM combined) come off the books next winter, at which point they can also buy out the mutual option on Andre Ethier’s contract. A year later, they’ll see Adrian Gonzalez, Scott Kazmir, Hyun-jin Ryu and Brandon McCarthy each come off the books as well, creating further opportunity to trim down the payroll. And, with a number of young in-house options both on the roster (Corey Seager, Julio Urias, Joc Pederson) and rising through the farm (Cody Bellinger, Jose De Leon, Yadiel Alvarez, Alex Verdugo, among others), they could eventually field a roster that is built more on homegrown talent than through free-agent spending, as recent iterations of their roster have been.
By Steve Adams | December 12, 2016 at 6:35pm CDT
6:35pm: While the deal doesn’t include no-trade protection, it does come with an assignment bonus, Rosenthal tweets.
2:49pm: Barry Svrluga of the Washington Post reports (on Twitter) that the Nationals were willing to offer more, though their offer contained deferred money. USA Today’s Bob Nightengale tweets that the Nats were willing to offer “as much as $5 million more.”
Jansen’s agent, Adam Katz, confirmed to Joel Sherman of the New York Post (all links to Sherman on Twitter) that the Nats offered more: “The Nationals’ presentation was exceptional and generous and for more money. They conducted recruitment of this player in a high caliber professional way. Kenley and I were very impressed. At the end of the day Kenley loves Los Angeles, his Dodger family, the fans here and although money was a factor, it wasn’t the most important thing.”
Of course, the deferrals involved in Washington’s offer could very well have brought the present-day value of the deal south of $80MM, and there’s been no word that the Nats were willing to include an opt-out in the deal, either (and such clauses add significant value to the deal as well, as MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz explained when attempting to monetize opt-out clauses last winter). As such, while the Nationals’ offer may have been for more money on paper, the overall value of the proposal could’ve been lower than the Dodgers’ offer.
1:29pm: Jansen can opt out of his new five-year deal after three seasons, reports Yahoo’s Tim Brown (on Twitter), who also notes that Jansen was offered more money elsewhere. (As noted below, the Marlins are reported to have topped $80MM in their best offer.)
12:38pm: The Dodgers and closer Kenley Jansen are in agreement on a five-year deal worth $80MM, reports Jim Bowden of ESPN and MLB Network Radio on SiriusXM (Twitter link). FOX’s Ken Rosenthal had reported that the Dodgers and Jansen were closing in on a deal shortly prior to Bowden’s report, and MLB Network’s Jon Morosi had tweeted that it was expected to be a five-year deal.
[Related: Updated Los Angeles Dodgers Depth Chart]
The 29-year-old Jansen is fresh off what was arguably the best season of his excellent career. In 68 2/3 regular-season innings, Jansen notched a full-season career-best 1.83 ERA with 13.6 K/9, 1.4 BB/9 and a 30 percent ground-ball rate to go along with a career-best 47 saves. That performance earned him his first All-Star berth, though how he’d gone five full seasons without an All-Star appearance is a mystery, as Jansen has compiled a 2.20 ERA with 13.9 K/9 against 2.6 BB/9 in 408 2/3 innings in the regular season over the life of his career. He’s never posted an ERA higher than 2.85 in his career, and even that mark came back in 2011. Since that time, his control has improved remarkably, and his ERA numbers have dipped accordingly. Dating back to the 2010 season, Chapman ranks third among all qualified relievers in total strikeouts, fourth in strikeout percentage and seventh in earned run average.
Jansen entered the winter as one of the market’s premium free agents and drew significant interest from the Yankees (who instead re-signed Aroldis Chapman), Nationals and Marlins — the latter of whom reportedly made an offer to Jansen that was greater than the five-year, $80MM pact to which he has agreed with the Dodgers. (It’s not known whether the Marlins’ offer included any sort of opt-out clause or deferred money, however.) In the end, he’ll join Rich Hill (three years, $48MM) back in Los Angeles, and that pair seems likely to be rejoined by Justin Turner, who is reportedly close to a four-year deal to return to the Dodgers. That trio comprised the Dodgers’ top three offseason targets, and while it figures to cost the club just shy of $200MM, that expenditure will net president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman, GM Farhan Zaidi and the rest of the Dodgers’ front-office staff three of the winter’s top open-market talents.
The Dodgers already projected to have a $203.9MM payroll even without Jansen in the fold, and adding his average annual value to the mix — we don’t yet know the official breakdown of the deal — should push the Dodgers’ 2017 payroll up to $219.4MM (via Jason Martinez of MLBTR/Roster Resource). Further adding Turner at a reported $16MM annual value would push next year’s overall commitments upwards of $235MM, though the luxury tax is calculated on the average annual value of a team’s total contracts as opposed to the bottom-line payroll figure.
The Dodgers are known to be working to decrease their payroll, which may seem counter-intuitive after they’ve spent nearly $200MM on their top three free agents (assuming the Jansen deal gets done). However, the Dodgers will also see their commitments to Alex Guerrero and Carl Crawford (roughly $28MM combined) come off the books next winter, at which point they can also buy out the mutual option on Andre Ethier’s contract. A year later, they’ll see Adrian Gonzalez, Scott Kazmir, Hyun-jin Ryu and Brandon McCarthy each come off the books as well, creating further opportunity to trim down the payroll. And, with a number of young in-house options both on the roster (Corey Seager, Julio Urias, Joc Pederson) and rising through the farm (Cody Bellinger, Jose De Leon, Yadiel Alvarez, Alex Verdugo, among others), they could eventually field a roster that is built more on homegrown talent than through free-agent spending, as recent iterations of their roster have been.
