Although it appears the Los Angeles Dodgers are unlikely to re-sign Kenley Jansen, the bullpen is still in good shape for the 2022 season.
The back of their bullpen will continue to be anchored by Blake Treinen, who has been ranked by ESPN’s Buster Olney among the top 10 relief pitchers in baseball. Olney amasses his annual list by receiving input from evaluators and others around baseball.
The result has Treinen ranked as No. 4 on the list, behind Liam Hendricks of the Chicago White Sox, Josh Hader of the Milwaukee Brewers, and Emmanuel Clase of the Cleveland Guardians.
Following Treinen were Raisel Iglesias (L.A. Angels), Ryan Pressly (Houston Astros), Devin Williams (Brewers), Jonathan Loaisigia (New York Yankees), Aaron Loup (Angels) and Edwin Diaz (N.Y. Mets).
Treinen is coming off the second-best season of his career. In 72.1 innings, the right-hander pitched to a 1.99 ERA, 2.88 FIP, struck out 10.58 hitters per nine and walked 3.11 batters per nine.
The 33-year-old’s success came from his ability to limit soft contact as he was in the 100th percentile of average exit velocity allowed, the 99th percentile in barrel percentage and 98th percentile of hard-hit percentage.
Simply put, it was extremely rare for hitters to hit the ball hard while Treinen was pitching.
Treinen’s best season came in 2018 when he posted a 0.78 ERA and 1.82 FIP in 80.1 innings, but he struggled the next season with an ERA near five. He rebounded to a 3.86 ERA in 2020 and once again got back to an elite level last year.
While it could just be attributed to normal reliever volatility, Treinen made a significant change in his pitch usage that could be behind his resurgence.
In his career, Treinen has thrown his sinker about half of the time, but in 2021, that pitch usage dropped to 27% while he started to rely on his slider (35%) and cutter (30%) far more often.
In 2021, batters hit .074 against Treinen’s slider and .176 off his cutter, while they hit .316 against the sinker. Throughout his entire career, hitters have always struggled more with Treinen’s slider and cutter.
Overall in his career, Treinen owns a 2.87 ERA and 3.28 FIP in 498 innings while striking out nine hitters per nine and walking 3.47 per nine.
It appears likely that Treinen will take over as the Dodgers closer in 2021, so he looks primed to be one of baseball’s best closers.
Treinen, all Dodgers relief pitchers unranked for 2021 season
Prior to the 2021 season, the Dodgers did not have a reliever inside of Olney’s top 10.
Jansen was coming off a down year where he looked like he would no longer be the closer moving forward and although Treinen was good in 2020, he was not back in the elite tier.
Despite the rankings, the Dodgers bullpen ended up being one of the strengths of their team.
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