A couple of weeks ago, I passed by a sports card shop and I chatted a lot with the card shop owner. He's quite nice and we talked about lots of things. Moreover, we all hope to see some cool products in 2023. Additionally, I saw some packs of 2022 Topps Chrome Update available. I used to buy some packs of Topps Chrome Update. This time, I decided to get some backs of 2022 Topps Chrome Update, trying to see whether I can get a cool rookie card.
Unfortunately, I didn’t get a cool rookie card. However, I found a Kenley Jansen card. While seeing this card, I was thinking whether signing Jansen is a good decision.
Kenley Jansen inked a 2-year deal with the Red Sox in December 2022. In the 2022 season, he was the closer for the Atlanta Braves. Last year, Jansen picked up 41 saves, leading the NL. Moreover, he owned a 3.38 ERA and a 1.05 WHIP in 64 innings.
Now, let’s look at the Red Sox bullpen. Last year, the Red Sox had 39 saves, which is fewer than Jansen’s 41 saves. Among the Red Sox relievers, no one collected 10 saves in 2022. Additionally, Matt Barnes, Tanner Houck and John Schreiber each picked up 8 saves in 2022.
Matt Barnes collected 24 saves for the Red Sox in 2021. Last year, he made 44 relief appearances, posting a 4.31 ERA and a 1.44 WHIP in 39.2 innings. Moreover, Tanner Houck made 28 relief appearances. As a reliever, he owned a 2.70 ERA and a 1.13 WHIP in 43.1 innings. Furthermore, John Schreiber made 64 relief appearances in 2022. He tossed a career-high 65 innings and posted a good 2.22 ERA and a 0.98 WHIP. Meanwhile, Garrett Whitlock made 22 relief appearances. He owned a 2.75 ERA and a 0.79 WHIP over 39.1 innings as a reliever. Looking at the Red Sox bullpen, only John Schreiber tossed more innings than Jansen did in 2022. At the same time, batting average against Jansen was .192 in 2022. Garrett Whitlock made 9 starts and 22 relief appearances for the Red Sox last year, as a reliever, his WHIP was only 0.79 and opponents only batted .179 against him.
The Red Sox won 78 games and lost 84 times last season. They finished 5th in the AL East. A key problem of the Red Sox in 2022 was that the Red Sox bullpen had a 4.59 ERA, 5th highest among 30 MLB teams. Hence, enhancing the bullpen is surely a very important thing to do in the off-season. The Red Sox and Kenley Jansen agreed to a 2-year deal and this decision seems to be reasonable because Jansen has been a very reliable closer for a while. However, Jansen already turned 35 and he had 7 blown saves last season. He’s not the most dominant closer as he was in 2016 or 2017. However, it shouldn’t be difficult to see Jansen record 20 or 30 saves for the Reds Sox in 2023. Nonetheless, there might be some ups and downs.
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