The Boston Red Sox came into the offseason behaving like a broke team that can’t afford to make any purchases without paying their employees’ salaries.
Even if that is untrue beyond belief, Red Sox ownership doesn’t seem to care about winning anymore. Having said that, it would make the most sense to transfer closer Kenley Jansen if payroll is to be reduced.
“If you look at Jensen, he’s still a really good closer,” Robert Murray of FanSided stated on Monday’s episode of “The Baseball Insiders” “A strong arm in the ninth inning is always desired by teams, so I believe there may be a serious interest in that from a team.
“I do wonder — this is just my speculation, I want to make that incredibly clear — but the Dodgers make a lot of sense there, don’t they?” Murray asked. “In the ninth inning, they require a person. Jensen is certainly familiar with L.A. You can tell they’re willing to increase salary by the amount of money they’ve spent this summer. It makes perfect sense.”
Recently, I penned a comprehensive analysis on this very subject, and Chris Cotillo of MassLive also made the same suggestion.
In his first season in Boston, Jansen recorded a 3.63 ERA in 44 2/3 innings with a 52 to 17 strikeout to walk ratio, a.237 batting average against, and a 1.28 WHIP. Most remarkably, he made 29 out of 33 save attempts.
In the latter year of his two-year contract, the right-hander is due $16 million. Given the team’s budget, that amount of money may be freed up; but, since the luxury tax was reset a year ago, there is no need for any kind of fiscal restraint.