Future Dodgers Hall of Famer lands with Tigers and may not help Tarik Skubal trade

Kenley Jansen will always have a special place in Los Angeles Dodgers history. The 12 years he spent with the Dodgers were some of the most dominant seasons we've seen from a closer in history, and the fans will always be grateful for the memories.

However, as the 38-year-old bounces around the league in his golden years, he may have unintentionally torpedoed the Dodgers by signing with the Detroit Tigers.

The Dodgers, like most of the baseball world, have had their eye on Tigers ace Tarik Skubal for some time. Detroit is stuck between a rock and a hard place with the game's best lefty, and it felt like push might come to shove eventually.

The Tigers haven't been the easiest club to read, either. Detroit's president of baseball operations, Scott Harris, came out and said he expects his top prospects to play significant roles in 2026, immediately after the club was eliminated by the Seattle Mariners. That certainly made it sound like the Tigers were willing to take a step back and prepare for life without Skubal. That might not be the case anymore.

Kenley Jansen signing with the Tigers could be the end of the Dodgers' Tarik Skubal dreams

It was just a few days ago that the chorus of insiders and pundits claiming a Skubal-to-the-Dodgers trade was likely, but it might as well have been a lifetime ago.

By signing Jansen, Detroit sent a message. The league's active saves leader may no longer be one of the game's truly elite closers, a la Edwin Diaz, but with 29 saves and a 2.59 ERA for a pitiful Los Angeles Angels club last season, he's shown that he can still get it done.

More importantly is what Detroit would have needed to promise Jansen in order to land him. While Jansen hung out on the free agent market until nearly the start of spring training last winter, he was in a much stronger position this go around after a better season in 2025 than he put up in 2024.

With 476 career saves, Jansen is just two shy of Lee Smith for third all-time, and should be able to reach 500 in 2026, becoming just the third man ever to do so after Mariano Rivera and Trevor Hoffman. Simply put, he's putting the finishing touches on his Hall of Fame resume, and his final years matter a lot in this regard.

With that in mind, Jansen wasn't going anywhere where he wouldn't be the unquestioned closer, and he likely wouldn't pick a club that wasn't going to be a winner in 2026. Nor would the Tigers pay an elevated price for a closer for just one year if they weren't going to keep Tarik Skubal (or, at least, that wouldn't make sense).

The Tigers are a much better team with Skubal than without him, so Jansen probably chose them knowing that the two-time AL Cy Young winner would be in the fold.

For the Dodgers, that means all that Winter Meetings hype might've been just that: all smoke and no substance.