Dodgers Trading for Kenley Jansen a Real Possibility at Deadline

The Boston Red Sox haven’t fully convinced Major League Baseball insiders of their trade deadline situation this season. While they are 7.5 games back in the American League East divisional race, they are in the Wild Card race and could play themselves into the second spot.

The fact that they could end up playing postseason baseball raises questions regarding their closer. Will Kenley Jansen be in Boston for the duration of the season or will he be traded?

Bob Nightengale of USA Today thinks it’s a possibility that he is traded and it could be to the Dodgers or another AL East team.

“It’s a possibility for sure,” Nightengale told Dodgers Nation’s Doug McKain. “What hurts is that the Red Sox are still in the race. They may want to add. They’re still hanging around, so I’m not sure they’d trade Jansen. Obviously the Dodgers would make a lot of sense, just because they know him, they know what he can do, they know he can step up in crunch time. I would think a team like the Baltimore Orioles would be in on Jansen, too. They don’t want to rely on Craig Kimbrel, they’d like to have a closer.”

Jansen is in the last year of a two-year, $32 million deal with Boston, and at 36, he is still one of the best closers in the game. He has 17 saves this season for the Red Sox with a 2.08 ERA and is averaging a little more than a strikeout per inning.

A survey of 35 baseball executives showed Jansen as the third most likely reliever to be traded before July 30, according to The Athletic’s Jim Bowden.

Bowden wrote on June 26 that it was “hard for me to believe they would trade their closer at the deadline. However, rival execs reminded me there could be several ‘buyer to buyer ’-type trades this year and that Jansen could be expendable in the right swap.”

If the Red Sox deal Jansen, they will want a starter in return and the Dodgers don’t have the depth to provide a dependable starter in the deal with so many on the injured list. If Boston is in striking distance for the playoffs then why would they want to get rid of their closer?

Any questions will be answered over the next few weeks.

Photo Credit: Nick Turchiaro-USA TODAY Sports

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