Dodgers: Time to put Kenley Jansen in the Cy Young conversation

When the conversation for best pitcher in baseball comes up, it’s filled with starters. Well, with the new age of relievers, a guy who comes in for three outs needs to start being included in the conversation, and the Dodgers have one of those guys.

When it comes to the Dodgers‘ Kenley Jansen, he has cemented his name as a top dominant pitcher in this league, and may even engrave it into a CY Young award.

I know, the first thing that everyone is thinking is “he doesn’t even have the most saves in the league, how can he win the CY Young as a reliever?” First of all, if we are still basing a reliever’s value off saves, then we’re doing something wrong. Take Andrew Miller’s 2016 postseason as an example. He recorded one save in his historic 2016 playoff run and was arguably the MVP of the playoffs.

Second, are we going to punish relievers for their teams being too good? The Dodgers currently have a +98 run differential, which is good for third in the league, behind the Yankees and the Astros.

The Yankees have 15 saves as a team, and the Astros have 20. I guess it’s some crime to win games by more than three runs, but, #savez. In the analytics age, we have slowly started to weed out the unimportant stats such as wins for a pitcher, so it is time to change our stance on saves as well.

Now, to make a case for Kenley.

The Dodgers handed out an $80 million deal to Jansen this past offseason, and he is making them look like geniuses. Of the 107 batters that Kenley has faced this year, 50 of them have been struck out, and zero have been walked.

He has shattered the record for most strikeouts to start a season without giving up a walk, and at this rate, he may never walk another batter. In the middle of it all, he added an immaculate inning to his resume, which was very fun to watch. Most, to all, of his work, has come on his cutter, which my colleague Saeed Villanueva compared to Mariano Rivera’s.

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So, besides Kenley’s strikeout streak, what else does he have to jot down on his CY Young resume? Well at this point he has a 0.30 FIP, which is just stupid and has a 0.91 ERA, which is slowly dropping each game. Kenley has been ridiculous in every aspect on the mound and is no doubt a top reliever, but is it enough to beat out starters for the CY Young award?

Well, we can take Eric Gagne’s 2003 CY Young as a barometer test. But, it’s hard because Gagne’s case was built on saves. However, Gagne did have 114 strikeouts to 22 walks, which Kenley is on pace to shatter.

He also held a ridiculous 0.86 FIP which is fun to think about when you consider the era he pitched in. If Kenley can continue his dominance throughout the season, a .086 FIP is not out of the question. Kenley is on pace to either match or surpass Gagne in every statistical category besides saves, which you know how I feel about already.

Yes, the idea that a guy who comes in to pitch for three outs every other day winning the Cy Young over a starting pitcher is crazy. But, there are always exceptions for historical seasons. Look at Clayton Kershaw in his MVP-winning season. If the voters can look past saves, then Kenley Jansen has a real shot at winning this thing.

Watching Kenley pitch is an art. You know exactly what he’s throwing and basically where he is going to throw it, but he’s so talented he can’t be hit. I’ve never been more confident in a pitcher to get three outs than I have been with Kenley this season.

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Not only has he been the best reliever in baseball, but he has also arguably been the best pitcher in baseball, and he deserves to be in the conversation with the best.