If the Detroit Tigers have any hope of squeaking into the playoffs, there’s a hard truth they must confront.
They can’t trust Kenley Jansen as their closer.
Not after he blew a golden opportunity when the Tigers needed him most. Not after he blew a game they desperately needed in a come-from-ahead 4-3 loss at Pittsburgh on Wednesday, Aug. 19.
If you haven’t seen the carnage from PNC Park this week, just imagine the Titanic crashing into the iceberg, then the Exxon Valdez crashing into the Titanic, then the Hindenburg crashing into the Titanic and the Exxon Valdez.
If you want it in baseball terms, Jansen gave up two solo home runs to surrender his fourth walk-off loss
this season – the most in the majors entering Thursday, and double the next worst pitcher.
So, yeah ... pretty bad.
After getting swept at home by the American League Central-leading Chicago White Sox, the Tigers had a chance to rebound with a series win over the mediocre Pirates when Jansen entered in the bottom of the ninth holding a 3-2 lead.
Even before he took the mound, you could hear the panic in the voices of Tigers announcers Jason Benetti and Andy Dirks in the top of the ninth, when the Tigers had two runners on with one out.
Benetti: “Love to pick up on more to give Kenley Jansen a little more runway.”
Dirks: “Way more fun to go into the bottom half of the ninth with a two-, three-run lead than a one-run lead.”
Unfortunately for the TV duo – who sounded like they’d seen this movie before – a strikeout and a ground out kept the Tigers' lead at just one run. Then again, part of their concern could be attributed to right-hander Kyle Finnegan’s performance in the bottom of the eighth, when he was wobblier than a two-legged stool while giving up two walks.
It started out well though for Jansen, who struck out pinch-hitter Jake Mangum on five pitches.
Then he gave up a homer to Rafael Flores Jr. on an 0-2 count. What’s worse is that Flores homered in the seventh inning off Jacob Waguespack on a similar cutter. What’s even worse was that catcher Dillon Dingler called for Jansen's cutter high and out of the strike zone. Jansen instead threw it middle-in, which allowed the right-handed Flores to turn on it and launch it into PNC’s upper deck in left.
After a visit from Dingler, Jansen settled down and got Spencer Horwitz to pop out to right.
Jansen just needed to get left-handed hitter Brandon Lowe, the Pirates’ home run leader, to get out of the inning and go to extra innings. Instead, he threw a 1-2 cutter to Lowe, who clanked the middle-in pitch off the right-field foul pole for a walk-off homer.
Pirates TV announcer Greg Brown chose to deploy the World Series Game 7 call he has apparently been saving for decades to describe the moment: “Oh, my goodness! Best win of the year! Buccos win the series!”
I’m sure many Tigers fans were thinking the exact opposite while screaming a word that nearly rhymes with "Buccos."
With the exception of a fantastic July – no earned runs in nine appearances and 3-for-3 in save opportunities – Jansen has been shaky all season.
By the numbers, it would seem like he was continuing to turn the corner in August, with similarly good results: 4-for-4 on save opportunities before Wednesday. But in watching it, Jansen has struggled, with only three clean innings in six appearances, with five hits, two walks and a 6.35 ERA.
For the season, Jansen has 16 saves in 21 chances and a 4.19 ERA. The sad truth is, he looks like a shadow of the version of himself that was one of baseball’s most dominant closers in baseball for more than a decade. At 38, he has by far the highest ERA of his career, as well as his lowest strikeout-to-walk ratio.
Watching Jansen struggle to become just the third pitcher to reach 500 saves – he's at 492 after Wednesday's flameout – is as painful as watching an old snail inch his way across a hot asphalt road.
Individual records don’t matter to a Tigers fanbase that’s still raw from trading away Tarik Skubal and Casey Mize but clinging to playoff hope, even while enduring constant late-inning disappointments. Wednesday’s loss was the Tigers' 19th defeat after leading in the seventh inning or later, the worst in the majors, per MLB.com.
Jansen’s implosion was even more vexing on a day when the Tigers had done what they needed to, getting an inspired start from Jackson Jobe and chasing defending NL Cy Young Award winner Paul Skenes after 4⅓ innings.
Understandably, many passionate Tigers fans wanted to burn it all down after the game. Fire A.J. Hinch. Fire Scott Harris. Designate Kenley Jansen for assignment.
But DFA-ing Jansen is unlikely because the Tigers' bullpen isn't exactly brimming with great arms. But Hinch needs to try something. Beyond all the stats about Jansen, you can trust your eyes – his cutter doesn’t move the same anymore.
Even though there’s something to be said about the steely-eyed confidence needed to be a closer, which Jansen clearly still has, Hinch needs to look beyond Jansen’s Hall of Fame-quality résumé to find another answer quickly. The Tigers' margins for error are shrinking with 35 games to go and lots of ground to make up in the standings.
I would consider trying veteran right-hander Tanner Rainey as closer. He has experience in the role, at least, finishing games for the Washington Nationals in 2022.
Although he only has three appearances with the Tigers since getting called up Aug. 11, Rainey's fastball and slider have impressed. He hasn’t allowed a run in 3⅓ innings, with just one hit allowed, no walks and four strikeouts.
If Hinch wants to chalk up Jansen’s latest implosion to "just one of those games" and keep rolling the dice by rolling Jansen out there, he’d better be prepared to live with the consequences.
Because if Jansen keeps blowing the Tigers’ slim leads, Hinch will see one of Yogi Berra’s greatest aphorisms come true: “If you don’t got a bullpen, you got nothing.”
Contact Carlos Monarrez at cmonarrez@freepress.com and follow him on X @cmonarrez.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Tigers just can't keep going to Kenley Jansen to close out games
