Where does Angels' Kenley Jansen rank among top MLB closers of all time?

Kenley Jansen is crushing it so far for the 2025 Angels, and he is cementing his place in the history books in the process. MLB writers and personalities do not like comparing anybody to Mariano Rivera, but Jansen's predominant use of his cutter and ability to slam 9th inning doors on opposing teams might make him the closest thing to Mo fans have ever seen. Jansen now has 450 saves during his now 16-year career, which is fourth most all-time (he does technically still need to hold off Craig Kimbrel to hold his spot on the all-time ranking). The new Angels closer has one eye on competing on 2025, and one on Cooperstown.

Where does Angels' Kenley Jansen rank among top MLB closers of all time?

Is Jansen's career on par or better than Hall of Fame relievers like Hoyt Wilhelm, Lee Smith, Billy Wagner, Rollie Fingers, Goose Gossage, Dennis Eckersley, or Bruce Sutter? Well, some of those relievers were not always relievers so it's an imperfect scale. It's safe to say Jansen is not better a better closer than Mariano Rivera or Trevor Hoffman. As a pure pitcher, Jansen is not better than many of those names (and many non-Hall of Fame relievers), but his body of work speaks for itself.

A pitcher cannot rack up that many saves and strikeouts over that many years and not be a tremendous talent, and Jansen assuredly is supremely talented and accomplished. The Jay Jaffe-invented JAWS metric, a trusted figure for Hall of Fame voters, has a subsidiary that's named R-JAWS (Reliever JAWS) -- a figure which emphasizes high leverage and win probability. Jansen ranks 10th all-time in R-JAWS, ahead of Smith, Fingers, Sutter. However, he is right below non-Hall of Famers like Tom Gordon, Joe Nathan, and Firpo Marberry.

The issue with Jansen is his wins above replacement, which he truly needs to raise by a few points the rest of his career. While Jansen is with the Angels this season (and perhaps beyond), he needs to stay on track bWAR-wise to his 2024 season with the Red Sox in which he posted a 1.3. Jansen currently has an impressive 0.5 bWAR in just five games.

Jansen has a giant body of work to submit to Hall of Fame voters. Colloquially amongst baseball fans, he might not be as revered as a Wagner, Kimbrel, or maybe even a K-Rod, but his ability to mostly throw one pitch his whole career and still dominant is second-to-one....Mariano Rivera.

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