Kenley Jansen saves for the Dodgers, again and again

Kenley Jansen closes baseball games for the Los Angeles Dodgers. Despite a few struggles this season, he is somewhat quietly moving up the teams single-season saves list, and converting his saves at a very successful rate as well.

The save is a bit of a strange statistic¹, but if one ignores the three-inning save outliers, the reality is that closers are frequently pitching in very high-leverage situations and are still measured, to some extent, by saves. It's also likely that saves will be part of criteria used to determine Jansen's salary for next season, as he enters his second year of eligibility for an arbitrated salary.

In the just-concluded series with the San Diego Padres, Jansen saved both wins for the Dodgers, on Thursday night sealing Clayton Kershaw's win with the slimmest possible cushion of a one-run lead, and on Tuesday night finishing the game with the aid of the rare² walkoff TOOTBLAN³.

via Gaslamp Ball

This brought Jansen's save total to 36 in the 129 games played by Los Angeles this season. At that rate, Jansen would post 45 saves in 2014, which would make him the all-time Dodgers single-season saves leader, in the non-Eric Gagné division.

In his first full season as the undisputed closer for the Blue, Jansen is also converting his saves at a 90% success rate. Only Gagné and Takashi Saito have been more successful by that measure for a season of 30 or more saves.

The native of Curaçao is also managing to be successful while sporting an OPS allowed that, while respectable, does not astound. But given that he strikes out 38.9% of the batters he faces, seventh-best in the majors (40 innings, minimum)⁴, and his current BABIP allowed is an exceedingly high .371, there is a good chance that his OPS allowed will decrease as the season progresses.

For his career, Jansen has converted 86.0% of his save opportunities⁵, racked up 98 saves, and fanned 39.6% of the batters he faced. Opposing hitters scrape up a measly .173/.253/.267 batting line against him. Not bad for a converted catcher.

No matter how you slice it, you are witnessing a very high-level of relief pitching when you see Kenley Jansen ascend the mound for the Dodgers, so enjoy it and appreciate it, as you enjoy tremendous odds that you are about to witness the conclusion to another Los Angeles victory.

^{1. A pitcher earns a save when his team wins, he finishes the game, he isn't credited with the win, and one of the following three conditions hold: 1. he enters the game with a lead of no more than three runs and pitches for at least one inning; 2. he enters the game, regardless of the count, with the potential tying run either on base, or at bat, or on deck; 3. he pitches effectively for at least three innings.↩}

^{2. It would seem to be rare, but the Dodgers have done it twice to the Padres in two seasons}

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^{3. TOOTBLAN is an acronym for Thrown Out On The Bases Like A Nincompoop, coined on May 7, 2008 by blogger Tony Jewell to describe the baserunning antics of then-Cub (and later Dodger) Ryan Theriot.↩}

^{4. Brad Boxberger leads at 42.7%↩}

^{5. For players with 75 or more career saves since 1958, the 86.0% save success rate is 17th best, tied with current teammate Brian Wilson. Gagné leads this category at 91.7%. Future hall-of-famer Mariano Rivera's rate was 89.1%. Current hall-of-famer Dennis Eckersley was successful 84.6% of the time.↩}