Kenley Jansen took another step toward baseball’s most exclusive club on Friday night, closing out the Tigers’ 6-2 win over the Rockies and moving to 495 career saves. That left him five shy of 500 with only 13 games left on Detroit’s schedule.
At this point, the question is no longer whether Jansen can still get the job done. Friday’s four-pitch outing showed that much. The real issue is whether the Tigers can keep handing him the kind of late-game chances he needs before the season runs out.
Jansen entered the final stretch of the year already third on the all-time saves list, behind Mariano Rivera’s 652 and Trevor Hoffman’s 601. Reaching 500 would not move him up the ladder, but it would put another major marker on a career already loaded with them. Only two pitchers have ever done it.
The problem is simple math, and it is not especially friendly. Five saves in 13 games means Jansen would need to finish nearly one out of every 2.6 team games from here on out. Detroit would also need at least five wins that actually qualify as save chances.
The Tigers’ sweep of Colorado made that point in a hurry. Jansen got the save Friday after entering with runners on base and the tying run coming to the plate, according to the Reuters game report.
On Saturday, he worked a scoreless ninth in an 11-7 victory and struck out two, but the four-run cushion kept him from adding to his total, according to his official MLB game log. Then on Sunday, Detroit rolled to an 8-1 win and never needed him at all.
That’s the strange part of this chase: the Tigers have to win, but they can’t win too comfortably. If the leads get too big, there’s no save to be had. If the games are too close, Jansen has to be available and fresh enough to take them on.
Jansen’s career has already put him in rare company. He came up as a catcher before converting to pitcher early in his professional career, and his cutter became one of the defining pitches of his era. His 495 saves put him well ahead of every other active pitcher and just behind Rivera and Hoffman on the all-time list.
Detroit also has no reason to force the issue. Jansen turned 38 in September, and keeping him healthy matters more than chasing one number.
A.J. Hinch can use him for more than three outs if a real opportunity opens up, as it did on Friday, but he can’t manufacture five tight finishes out of thin air.
So Jansen’s path to 500 depends on a three-part mix: performance, health and timing. He can control the first piece. The other two are out of his hands.
The Tigers still have time to get him there. They just don’t have much.
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