Former Dodgers Closer Takes Subtle Shot at L.A. Media

The definition of thick skin according to Merriam-Webster is “an ability to keep from getting upset or offended by the things other people say and do.”

Former Los Angeles Dodgers closer Kenley Jansen doesn’t have it.

Six years ago, in April 2018, Jansen blew a 6-3 lead to the Arizona Diamondbacks with two outs in the bottom of the ninth. He happened to blow another another game days before. The closer became defensive after the game when Andy McCullough, the team’s beat writer at the Los Angeles Times then, asked Jansen if his early season struggles had anything to do with his mechanics.

Asked about his two cutters that registered 88 and 89 mph, Jansen dismissed the queries about out-of-sync mechanics with “Who cares?”

“No, it’s not mechanic,” Jansen said. “He just got me. Who cares? Who cares? It’s one game.”

This quote came back around on Thursday when Jansen joined the Baseball Isn’t Boring podcast to talk about players and their approach to the media:

“That ‘Who cares?’ that I said was the headliner in all those big newspapers in L.A. and everywhere,” Jansen reminisced. “They kinda put that and tried to make the fans against you and stuff like that but you learn about it you develop, you grow.”

Did Jansen really learn from the incident?

The quote definitely was not the headline in “all those big newspapers in L.A.”

The largest paper in L.A., the Los Angeles Times, ran with this headline : “Should the Dodgers be concerned about Kenley Jansen’s velocity?”

The Los Angeles Daily News didn’t even mention his comment until the 10th paragraph of a story titled: “Deja view – Joe Panik homer again sends Dodgers to a 1-0 defeat.”

The only major newspaper to include “Who Cares?” in the headline was the Washington Times : “Kenley Jansen, Dodgers closer, asks ‘Who cares?’ after blown save.”

If Jansen needs a reminder of how the exchange exactly went down, it was all caught on video and uploaded to the internet, which is forever:

Jansen was frustrated with the question and acted like what happened wasn’t a big deal. The fact of the matter is that the Dodgers’ starting pitcher, Alex Wood , pitched a gem and Jansen blew it. He needed to take a little responsibility for blowing the game instead of acting like everything was fine.

Perhaps if Jansen acted a little more maturely back then, his version of the exchange wouldn’t still bother him.

Photo Credit: Joe Camporeale-USA TODAY Sports

Have you subscribed to our YouTube Channel yet? Subscribe and hit that notification bell to stay up to date on all the latest Dodgers news, rumors, interviews, live streams, and more!