Insider
Keith Law, ESPN Senior Writer 7y

Dodgers hold serve by retaining Jansen and Turner

The Los Angeles Dodgers didn’t exactly get better with this week's moves, but they managed to hold serve by retaining Kenley Jansen and Justin Turner, who were both markedly better than any remaining alternative available in free agency.

I’ve written three times already this offseason about the folly of four- or five-year deals for relievers, how they have worked out badly as a class to date, how reliever attrition rates are too high, and here we are again.

Jansen was the best reliever on the market this winter, and the only one I would have considered for a four-year deal, because of his age, history of health, and reliance on a single pitch. Even then, I really wouldn’t have wanted to go to that fourth year if I were a GM. The Dodgers have the money to fade pretty much any deal that goes south, but I’d be shocked if Jansen gave them more than three years of worthwhile performance on this deal.

^ Back to Top ^