Kenley Jansen ‘Would Be Happy’ For Trade Away From Red Sox

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Boston Red Sox president Sam Kennedy might have come up short on building a contender, pushing star closer Kenley Jansen to hope for a trade

Despite their winning record up to this point in the season, the Boston Red Sox will have a hard time finishing the year at the top of a division that also features the New York Yankees and Baltimore Orioles, two of the top three teams in the league.

And as a potential postseason run seems to slip out of the team’s grasp, MLB insider Jon Heyman projected that closer Kenley Jansen would prefer to finish the year with a different uniform on.

“Well, the Red Sox have a winning record right now but it doesn’t look like they are trying to win that division and I think he’d be happy to be traded at this point,” Heyman said during a livestream posted to X by Bleacher Report. “I know that he went to Boston figuring it would be a team that would contend.”

The Boston Red Sox Might Trade Kenley Jansen to the Los Angeles Dodgers

Heyman identified Jansen as a possible trade target for the Los Angeles Dodgers, a team that seems destined to make the postseason despite a relief corps that holds a 4.18 ERA and has given up the seventh-most hits in MLB. 

“Kenley Jansen is the one that comes to mind” as a trade candidate for the Dodgers, Heyman said. “He was a long-time Dodger, started with the Dodgers, doesn’t seem really in place now with the Red Sox.”

In terms of on-field production, Jansen has seemed relatively comfortable in Boston. He has earned five saves in 7.2 innings so far, with a 2.35 ERA and 12 strikeouts. But as the team skids toward a .500 record and sees a slew of early injuries derail its chances of winning many more games, Jansen may seem a bit out of place as a four-time All-Star, the active MLB leader in saves and a closer who has appeared in 59 postseason games.

The Boston Red Sox Might Have to Offer Payroll Considerations Along With Kenley Jansen in a Trade

Jansen signed a two-year, $32 million deal with the Red Sox in 2022 and if he is traded, it seems likely that the Red Sox will be on the hook to pay some of that salary for the remainder of this season.

“He got a very good contract, so Boston, if they do trade him, probably would have to pay a little bit of that contract,” Heyman added.

The idea of a reunion between Jansen and the Dodgers is not new and the team had considered swapping outfielder Manuel Margot to bring him back before ultimately sending Margo to the Minnesota Twins in the late offseason. 

“At one point in the offseason, the Dodgers engaged with the Red Sox on a possible swap that would’ve sent Margot to Boston in exchange for longtime Dodgers closer Kenley Jansen,” Juan Toribio reported for MLB.com. “Those discussions never progressed past the initial stages and fizzled out pretty quickly into the process.”

If a further drift from postseason contention pushes the Red Sox to listen on more offers for Jansen, or the pitcher’s desire to be traded bubbles over into something more demanding, the Dodgers might have to come up with an attractive package to win him amid other contenders.

Peter Chawaga covers Major League Baseball for Heavy.com. A writer and editor with more than 10 years of newsroom experience, his work has been published in newspapers, magazines and websites based around the country. His baseball reporting has been featured in Yardbarker, Last Word On Sports and more. More about Peter Chawaga