Los Angeles Dodgers closer Kenley Jansen was hospitalized with an irregular heartbeat and flown back to LA Thursday night/early Friday morning.
The biggest priority for everyone is obviously Jansen’s health, and it sounds like he will be ok and eventually make a full recovery, but this is certainly a scary episode for anyone to have to go through.
On the field, it goes without saying that this is a huge blow to the Dodgers. They said Friday morning that they expect Jansen to miss at least a month to go through treatment for the irregular heartbeat, according to a report by ESPN.
Jansen is in the middle of yet another great season as one of the premiere closers in the National League. In 54.1 IP (51 appearances), he has a 2.15 ERA and his other numbers seem to be lagging behind his other-worldly performances of the last couple of years, but that could be due to the extended playoff run a year ago.
Despite Jansen’s relative struggles, he made his third straight All-Star Team this year and his numbers are still very good, leading the league in saves with 32.
The Dodgers bullpen is its weakest part of the team, after they added Manny Machado and Brian Dozier to the lineup ahead of the trade deadline to boost the infield. They also have an elite rotation, led by Clayton Kershaw.
I would guess the Jansen doesn’t make it back this season. I hope he does, but I can’t remember many instances where an athlete came back within the same season from an issue such as an irregular heartbeat, and the consequences of rushing such a thing would not be worth it.
One of the most unfortunate parts of this for LA is that this incident occurred after the Oakland A’s acquired Fernando Rodney from the Minnesota Twins. Perhaps the Dodgers could have made a push to bring in the experienced reliever to help alleviate the damage.
This is an outlook-changing situation for the Dodgers, who I would say still have the best roster in the NL overall, but perhaps are no longer the clear-cut NL favorite that I had anointed them when they acquired Brian Dozier.
Featured Image via Flickr/Ian D’Andrea
