Kenley Jansen is a three-time Major League Baseball All-Star who plays as a pitcher for the Los Angeles Dodgers, the team he has been playing for since his debut in 2010 after signing with the franchise as a teenager.
Known for his cut fastball, which reaches a top speed of 98 miles per hour, the Curacoan has twice been named National League Reliever of the Year and also led the National League in the 2017 Parades.
Kenley Jansen Biography
On September 30, 1987, Bernadette Jansen, a travel agent, and Isidor Jansen, a construction worker, welcomed the last of their three boys, Kenley Geronimo Jansen, to Willemstad, Curacao. Jansen showed his extraordinary talent at a very young age when he played baseball with his brothers. Originally he played as an outfield player before moving to shortstop, then to third base and first base, before finally settling down at the catcher’s position.
Kenley Jansen is said to have won many admirers for his talent even as a teenager. When he graduated high school in 2004, the Los Angeles Dodgers signed him as an unattached free agent to play as a catcher. When he joined the team, the Dodgers transferred him to the Gulf Coast Dodgers minor league, where he began to make a name for himself on his way to the major leagues.
Jansen spent some time with the Gulf Coast Dodgers before moving up to the Pioneer League Ogden Raptors. He then played for the North Shore Honu in the Hawaii Winter Baseball League for a season before returning to the Raptors in 2007. While playing for the Raptors, Jansen also played for the Class-A Great Lakes Loons of the Midwest League before returning to Hawaii again, this time with the West Oahu CaneFires.
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In 2009 Kenley Jansen’s parent team convinced him to switch from catching to pitching due to his poor player numbers. The player immediately experienced a career leap that earned him a spot on the Dodgers’ 40-man list in November 2009, although he eventually left the team as he was again sent to the Inland Empire 66ers of San Bernardino. A few months later, Jansen moved up to the Double-A Chattanooga Lookouts, where he scored 27 innings in 22 games, with an ERA of 1.67 to earn a permanent promotion to the Dodgers’ 2010 season, and the rest, as they say, is history.
Kenley Jansen Salary
Kenley Jansen has come a long way since he put his first major league baseball contract on paper, which was a one-year $416,000 contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2011. His most recent contract, a five-year $80 million contract signed in December 2016, has definitely made him one of the team’s highest-earning players. He will receive an average annual salary of $16 million.
Kenley Jansen’s Family – Wife
Kenley Jansen had the pleasure of fighting his way through the curveballs of life with his wife, Gianni Jansen. The couple, both from the island of Curacao, formed the alliance in 2016, just months after they welcomed their first child together, a son named Kaden Isaiah Jansen, born August 16, 2015. On August 22, 2018, Gianni and Kenley welcomed another son, Kyrian Jeremiah. Jansen has an older child from a previous relationship, a daughter named Natalia Hannah Jansen, who was born on March 16, 2013.
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Gianni Jansen, born as Gianni Francisca, grew up like her husband in Willemstad, Curaçao. She reportedly attended Radulphus College before enrolling at the Intercontinental University of the Caribbean, where she earned a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration. After school, Gianni is said to have found work as a real estate agent and sales and marketing consultant. She currently works as a managing director at Loftier Living.
Where Is He From?
Kenley Jansen comes from the island state of Curacao in the Lesser Antilles, in the southern part of the Caribbean. Curacao is a member state of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Before 2010 it was part of the five island territories that formed the now-dissolved Netherlands Antilles.
Height and Weight
Kenley Jansen is not very tall, but with a height of 6 feet 5 inches (1.95 m), he will probably be the tallest person in most places where he is found. The right-hander, who has been diagnosed with atrial fibrillation, better known as irregular heartbeat, also weighs 125 kg (275 pounds).