Kenley Jansen

Kenley Geronimo Jansen (born September 30, 1987) is a Curaçaoan professional baseball pitcher for the Boston Red Sox of Major League Baseball (MLB).

He has previously played in MLB for the Los Angeles Dodgers and Atlanta Braves.

Signed by the Dodgers as an undrafted free agent in 2004, Jansen converted from a catcher to a relief pitcher in the minor leagues and made his major league debut in 2010.

Jansen was signed as an undrafted free agent catcher by the Dodgers organization on November 17, 2004, and was assigned to the Rookie Class Gulf Coast Dodgers, where he played in 37 games and hit .304 before being promoted to the Ogden Raptors of the Pioneer League on August 26.

He had two hits in 11 at-bats in three games for Ogden.

He was back with the Gulf Coast team the following season, hitting .245 in 35 games.

After the season he played for the North Shore Honu in the Hawaii Winter Baseball League, where he hit .121 in nine games.

Jansen split 2007 between the Raptors and the Class-A Great Lakes Loons of the Midwest League, hitting .207 in 73 games.

After the season, he again played in Hawaii Winter Baseball, this time for the West Oahu CaneFires In 2008 with the Loons, he hit .227 and 9 home runs in 79 games.

He was selected to the mid-season Midwest League All-Star game.

In 2009, he was the starting catcher for the Netherlands team in the World Baseball Classic.

In the Netherlands' upset of the favored Dominican Republic team, Jansen threw out Willy Taveras on an attempted steal of third base in the ninth inning, a key play in the game.

He began 2009 with the Inland Empire 66ers of San Bernardino, but hit just .202 in 38 games.

Despite that, he appeared in eight games for the Triple-A Albuquerque Isotopes but had just five hits in 27 at-bats.

The Dodgers convinced Jansen that he had no future at catcher because of his poor offensive numbers and that he should switch to pitching.

Under the tutelage of former major leaguer Charlie Hough, he made the conversion in the second half of the 2009 season at Inland Empire.

He pitched innings for the 66ers, allowing six earned runs.

He continued the conversion in the Arizona Fall League for the Peoria Javelinas.

Jansen was added to the Dodgers 40-man roster on November 19, 2009.

He started with Inland Empire again and allowed only five runs in 18 innings while striking out 28 batters.

On May 15, 2010, he was promoted to the Double-A Chattanooga Lookouts, where he was selected to the mid-season Southern League All-Star Game.

He pitched 27 innings in 22 games for the Lookouts, with a 1.67 ERA.

On July 23, 2010, Jansen was promoted to the Dodgers.

He made his Major League debut in relief on July 24 against the New York Mets, where he pitched a scoreless inning, retiring all three batters he faced and striking out two.

On July 25, Jansen recorded his first Major League save, when he pitched a 1-2-3 inning against the Mets.

On August 26, Jansen walked and scored a run in his first Major League plate appearance, at Miller Park in Milwaukee against Yovani Gallardo of the Brewers and collected his first major league hit on August 31, at Dodger Stadium.

The hit was a single up the middle against Kyle Kendrick of the Philadelphia Phillies.

He served as the Dodgers' closer starting in 2012, and led the National League (NL) in saves in 2017 and 2022.

After 11 years in the major leagues with the Dodgers, he entered free agency and signed a one-year deal with the Braves.

Jansen is a four-time MLB All-Star and two-time NL Reliever of the Year (2016, 2017).

In 2019, Jansen became the 30th pitcher to reach 300 career saves.

In 2023, he became the 7th pitcher to total 400 career saves.

Jansen was born in Willemstad, Curaçao, the youngest of three sons of Isidor and Bernadette Jansen.

His father worked in construction until suffering a stroke when Kenley was 12; his mother is a travel agent.

Jansen grew up as a Braves fan, because the team's games were broadcast in Curaçao on TBS.

The team later signed fellow Curaçaoan Andruw Jones and Jansen's older brother Ardley.

Kenley Jansen began playing baseball at the age of six, alongside his brothers.

He began as an outfielder before moving to shortstop.

Jansen then met Andrelton Simmons, and was shifted to third base.

He later played first base and catcher.