Dodgers to use Kenley Jansen once per series regardless of score

The Dodgers have used Kenley Jansen sparingly due to their habit of blowing teams out.  That will change going forward according to Dave Roberts.

Kenley Jansen is having a down season according to his standards and the Dodgers are going to help him get back on track.  Part of his struggles lately has been too many games not being very close.  Jansen has gone as many as 5-7 days in between outings since the beginning of July on multiple occasions.  Dave Roberts and Kenley Jansen have both agreed to make a change to fix that problem.

"Jansen said the two mutually agreed that Roberts will use him at least once per series for the remainder of the regular season regardless of the game score or whether it is a save situation."

That is good news for the Dodgers for a variety of reasons.  The first one is keeping Jansen on track with his pitching mechanics and make sure he doesn’t fall into bad habits.  Jansen and Roberts have talked a few times over the last month about poor mechanics being an issue for Jansen.  Using him at least once a series or every three to four days should avoid any relapses in bad pitching mechanics.

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Beyond Jansen that could also help the rest of the bullpen, especially Joe Kelly, Pedro Baez, and Julio Urias, get used to pitching the ninth inning in a save opportunity or at least high leverage situations later in the game.  Kenley is no longer the workhorse reliever who can be used three days in a row or for multiple innings.

The last two postseasons the Dodgers have gone to Jansen for more than three outs and the results are not great most of the time.  Getting Kelly, Baez, and Urias used to late-inning high leverage situations and gaining Dave Roberts trust in those spots should help limit Jansen’s postseason workload.

This upcoming postseason, more than the last two World Series runs, the Dodgers are viewing their rotation and bullpen as one pitching staff rather than setting roles in stone.  Rich Hill will likely shift to the bullpen along with Kenta Maeda after his injury.  Tony Gonsolin and Ross Stripling are two other starting pitchers who could find themselves getting relief work in the postseason.

Kenley Jansen is known to be stubborn, so finally agreeing to pitch in more non-save situations is a win for everyone involved.  It’s exactly the team first type of attitude that the entire roster will need to buy into in order to finally get over that World Series hump.  One team, one pitching staff, and one goal to end a title drought that has gone on since 1988.