Losing an All-Star player in the midst of a pennant race is obviously not ideal, and the Los Angeles Dodgers are finding that out right now with Kenley Jansen on the 10-day disabled list due to a heart issue.
Without Jansen, the Dodgers bullpen suffered losses in three of four games against the Colorado Rockies over the weekend, which included giving up a walk-off home run and walk-off walk on consecutive days.
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts decided to move starters Kenta Maeda and Ross Stripling to the bullpen to help aid that unit. It should definitely help as both have proven to be dominant as relievers in the past.
Roberts is still hesitant to name one specific closer while Jansen is out though, and he explained why, via Bill Plunkett of the Southern California News Group:
“Because no one’s done it (other than recently acquired John Axford),” Roberts said. “I just don’t think we have a person right now you could just say, ‘He’s our closer.’ What if it doesn’t go well that particular outing – then do you pivot? If you’re naming somebody, you have to give him a runway. That’s unfair to the player, to the team. I don’t want to say it’s different (pitching in the ninth inning) — but it is. There’s a reason closers get paid a lot more.”
While going with a closer by committee is the plan right now, that can change at any time if a reliever asserts himself as Roberts’ best option.
Maeda is the obvious option for that to happen considering how good he was during the postseason in 2017 as a high-leverage reliever. Maeda allowed just one total run in nine appearances while striking out 10 in 10.2 innings.
If he can take over that role, then the rest of the bullpen can essentially stay the same as it was before Jansen was out, which would take a tremendous amount of pressure off of all of them.
