Angels' Kenley Jansen Credits Dodgers Coach For Helping Him Set Obscure Record

Jansen boasts that he is baseball's all-time leader in "intentional balks." Anecdotally, at least, he's probably right. When Cleveland closer Bob Wickman committed an intentional balk in the ninth inning of a 2005 game, the Indians were leading 4-2 and the Minnesota Twins had a runner on second base. Cleveland manager Eric Wedge said he had never seen it before.

Rays closer Pete Fairbanks pulled the move in July 2024, one month after the Arizona Diamondbacks did the same in a meaningless late-game situation against the Chicago White Sox. Guardians reliever Cade Smith did it last month.

Credit Jansen — and Dodgers field coordinator Bob Geren — for reviving the practice in 2019. It's a limited-use tool but one he's applied (over and over again) in the same situation as Wickman: when the runner scoring doesn't matter as much as keeping the man in the batter's box off base.

A runner on second base has a much better opportunity to steal pitch information off the pitcher and catcher, and relay it to the batter, than a runner on third base.

"I’m not saying that hitters are cheating but why give them information, right?" Jansen said Friday in an interview on MLB Network. "If we have time to move them to third, know that I have one pitch, and give credit to (Dodgers coach) Bob Geren. I call him my Uncle Bob. He and I started that during my Dodger days."

If opposing hitters already expect Jansen will throw his cutter (he's throwing it 82 percent of the time this season, per Statcast), why move the runner at all? Who's he fooling?

"It’s just for the location," Jansen said Friday on MLB Network. "Don’t help the runner at second realize the location off me, knowing that the majority of time I’m going to throw that cutter. Especially sometimes my catcher likes to set up early, even late they still can relay it. I’m just going to put him at third if it’s a three-run lead. I don’t care about that run if he scores. It’s keeping that next guy off the base.”

Jansen, 37, probably won't catch Mariano Rivera's record of 652 career saves by the time he retires. He had 467, fourth all-time, entering the Angels' game in Detroit on Friday.

But you might as well hand him the intentional balks record now, even if he's the only one keeping track.

"I’m the king of balks. I don’t think nobody can repeat my record," he said. "By the time I’m done playing I’ll probably have the most intentional balks."