Kenley Jansen passeert Lee Smith en wordt derde op saveslijst

Kenley Jansen has become one of the most recognizable names ever tied to Dutch baseball, and his move to third on MLB’s all-time saves list gives that status real weight. With save No. 479 on April 14, 2026, Jansen passed Hall of Famer Lee Smith and pushed the Kingdom of the Netherlands further into the conversation at the very top of the sport. In a game dominated by late-inning pressure and tiny margins, Jansen is now standing behind only Mariano Rivera, with 652 saves, and Trevor Hoffman, with 601.

The milestone came in a 2-1 Detroit Tigers win over the Kansas City Royals, when Jansen took the ninth inning after the Tigers scored twice in the home half of the eighth to flip the game. Starling Marte ended it with a flyout, but the save belonged to the same closer routine Jansen has made look almost ordinary for more than a decade. He allowed a hit, then worked through the inning with two groundouts and that final flyout to lock down Detroit’s win. Four days earlier, on April 10, he had already tied Lee Smith at 478 saves.

The Tigers did not bring Jansen to Detroit for nostalgia. They signed him on December 17, 2025, to a one-year, $9 million deal with a club option for 2027 worth $12 million and a $2 million buyout. ESPN’s team and player pages have him handling the late innings as Detroit’s closer, and MLB described him in April 2026 as the active MLB leader in saves. For the Tigers, that means a veteran arm built for the exact kind of one-run game they played against Kansas City.

For Dutch baseball, the bigger story is visibility. Jansen has represented Team Kingdom of the Netherlands in the World Baseball Classic in 2009, 2013 and 2017, and every major milestone he reaches adds another line to the Kingdom’s baseball resume. Crossing Smith for third place is not just a stat move on a leaderboard; it is a reminder that players connected to the Netherlands are leaving a mark in the hardest late-game role in the sport. With 479 saves and 500 still in reach, Jansen is still writing that record in real time.