Even while living in the moment and being in awe of his accomplishment Wednesday night, Boston Red Sox closer Kenley Jansen still took some time to look to the future.
Jansen became just the seventh pitcher in Major League Baseball history to notch 400 career saves when he tossed a scoreless ninth inning to close out a 5-2 win for the Red Sox over the Atlanta Braves at Truist Park. The achievement isn’t one Jansen plans to ride off into the sunset with, as it instead is fueling him to strive for more.
And Jansen, who signed a two-year deal with the Red Sox this offseason, knows exactly what he wants out of the remainder of his career even after hitting the milestone mark.
“My goal is not to play two years — the two years that I have for this contract,” Jansen told reporters as seen on NESN postgame coverage. “My goal is to continue to go, man. I know what my personal goal is. And why not try to reach 40? I’m 35 right now, we still got a lot in the tank left. Every day I’m going to put work in. It’s just do great this year and we’ll worry about years to come.”
Jansen has shown no visible signs yet that his performance or body are deteriorating in his 14th season in the majors. He has anchored Boston’s bullpen and is tied for second in the American League with nine saves. He also has just allowed one earned run in 11 2/3 innings for a microscopic 0.77 ERA. And this is coming off of last season when he led the National League in saves with the Braves.
The veteran right-hander can still pop the mitt, too, as he showed on the mound Wednesday. While Jansen’s velocity and adjustment to the new pitch clock were concerns coming into the year, he reared back to throw in the upper 90s against the Braves, including touching 98.7 mph on the radar gun. That’s his fastest pitch since August 2016, according to MLB.com’s Ian Browne.
While Jansen earned a monumental feat that few have reached, he’s hoping that there’s still plenty of more to come.
“I’m going to enjoy this one and let this one be more motivation to keep going,” Jansen said.
