FORT MYERS, Fla. -- The topic of Kenley Jansen and the pitch timer started to take on a life of its own as soon as MLB announced the new rules that took effect this spring.
Baseball shows debated whether Jansen -- MLB’s slowest worker with men on base last season and the third slowest with the bases empty -- could adjust.
All the while, Jansen vowed that he would adapt, and spent the winter and the early part of the spring doing just that.
Then came the proof that the new closer for the Red Sox meant what he said. Making his Spring Training debut on Saturday afternoon in Boston's 4-4 tie with Houston, Jansen beat the timer easily for all 14 of his pitches in a 1-2-3 frame.
“I kept telling you guys, like, 'Yes, we didn’t have a pitch clock before and I didn’t think I was that slow. I became slow later on in my career,'” said Jansen. “When I first started pitching, I remembered it was always that 1-2 step, go back, and face hitters. Now I’m just going to go back to my old self. I probably created a bad habit in the past few years that made me slow, but it no longer affects me at all.”
From the time a pitcher gets the ball back from the catcher to when they release the pitch, they have 15 seconds to throw the offering with the bases empty and 20 seconds with a runner or runners on base.
To give you an idea of how well Jansen has adjusted, his times last year, per Statcast, were 25.6 seconds between pitches with the bases empty and 31.4 seconds with one or more runners on base.
How did he get so slow as his career progressed? Jansen thinks it was just a product of the environment he was pitching in -- not to mention his highly-pressurized role.
“When you come to the ninth inning, and you get in a jam, you want to slow the game down,” said Jansen. “I think when I’m slowing the game down is also when the hitters are taking a lot of time too. It’s a combination of both. It’s not fair to point fingers at either. Offense and defense became slow.”
Unflappable by nature -- as anyone who has spent even two minutes talking to him can tell -- it shouldn’t be surprising that Jansen has taken such a refreshing approach to adapting on the fly.
“I’ve been working on it since December already,” said Jansen. “Like I said, it’s a game of adjustments. Of course you’re going to be amped up by having fans. And on the last hitter, I kind of felt it a little that I’ve got to continue to breathe to make sure I don’t fatigue myself.”
At least as far as Red Sox fans were concerned, there was a lot of fatigue caused by watching the team’s bullpen convert just 39 of 67 save opportunities last season.
Jansen has come to Boston to fix that issue, which gives manager Alex Cora a lot of comfort.
“I like the fact that we have structure,” said Cora. “You can mix and match before that, but then in the ninth, you just give it to the big guy and just see what happens. And then most of the time he gets three outs before he gives up runs. We’re very excited to have him.”
The 35-year-old Jansen, who comes into the season eighth all-time with 391 career saves, is the key piece of Boston’s almost completely revamped bullpen.
“Even if you have to deal with adversity, I always say that if you’ve got a good pilot and you fly through bad weather, you’re going to be successful,” Jansen said. “Sometimes you’re going to go through bad weather and you’ve got to make sure to comfort everybody and make the ride be smooth. If we do that, I think we’re going to have a hell of a bullpen.”
And there’s no doubt who the anchor of Boston’s much-improved bullpen will be.
“I’m getting to know Kenley just being around him,” said Red Sox righty Nick Pivetta. “He’s an extremely competitive individual. He does everything 110 percent, whether it’s PFPs or catch play, or whether it’s bullpen. I think just the commitment he brings to the team and his ferocity and his stature and what he’s done in the past is going to help us in a really good way.”