Kenley Jansen | |||
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Jansen with the Los Angeles Dodgers
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Los Angeles Dodgers – No. 74 | |||
Pitcher | |||
Born: Willemstad, Curaçao |
September 30, 1987 |||
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MLB debut | |||
July 24, 2010, for the Los Angeles Dodgers | |||
MLB statistics (through 2016 season) |
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Win–loss record | 19–13 | ||
Earned run average | 2.20 | ||
Strikeouts | 632 | ||
Saves | 189 | ||
Teams | |||
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Career highlights and awards | |||
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Kenley Geronimo Jansen (born September 30, 1987) is a Curaçaoan professional baseball pitcher for the Los Angeles Dodgers of Major League Baseball (MLB). He has played for the Dodgers since his MLB debut in 2010. He appeared in the MLB All-Star Game in 2016.
Jansen was born in Willemstad, Curaçao, the youngest of three sons of Isidor and Bernadette Jansen. His father worked in construction until suffering a stroke when Kenley was 12; his mother is a travel agent.
Jansen was signed as an undrafted free agent catcher by the Dodgers on November 17, 2004, and was assigned to the Rookie Class Gulf Coast Dodgers, where he played in 37 games and hit .304 before being promoted to the Ogden Raptors of the Pioneer League on August 26. He had two hits in 11 at-bats in three games for Ogden. He was back with the Gulf Coast team the following season, hitting .245 in 35 games. After the season he played for the North Shore Honu in the Hawaii Winter Baseball League, where he hit .121 in nine games.
Jansen split 2007 between the Raptors and the Class-A Great Lakes Loons of the Midwest League, hitting .207 in 73 games. After the season, he again played in Hawaii Winter Baseball, this time for the West Oahu CaneFires In 2008 with the Loons, he hit .227 and 9 home runs in 79 games. He was selected to the mid-season Midwest League All-Star game.
In 2009, he was the starting catcher for the Netherlands team in the World Baseball Classic. In the Netherlands' upset of the favored Dominican Republic team, Jansen threw out Willy Taveras on an attempted steal of third base in the ninth inning, a key play in the game. He began 2009 with the Inland Empire 66ers of San Bernardino, but hit just .202 in 38 games. Despite that, he appeared in eight games for the Triple-A Albuquerque Isotopes, but had just five hits in 27 at-bats.