Some Positive News Out Of Boston - Kenley Jansen Quit The Red Sox Before The Season Ended And Now Teammates Are Saying He Sometimes Was Unsure Of Their Names Throughout The Season

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Today the Boston Red Sox season will come to an end. For the third consecutive season and fifth in six years, the Sox will miss the playoffs. They even expanded the amount of teams to get into October and that still isn't enough for them to qualify. 

Despite all that, a major step in the right direction in 2024 was that the team didn't finish in last place. I imagine this was an accomplishment celebrated by John Henry and his team that there were in fact teams worse than them in the AL East this year. Way to go. 

As the season approached its end this week, a report out of Boston revealed that closer Kenley Jansen left the team. He pitched on Sunday, didn't head up north to Toronto for the team's final road series, and by the time they had returned to Fenway his locker was cleared out and his nameplate removed. 

(Mass Live) But even before the Sox returned for the final three games of the season, Jansen packed up and went home. That’s highly unusual for injured players, especially veterans who know the importance of seeing the end of the season through with their teammates.

According to one Red Sox player, Jansen entered the training room last Sunday before his team’s split doubleheader with the Minnesota Twins and announced that he would pitch in the first game and that would be it. Indeed, somewhat strangely, he pitched the top of the ninth inning of a game in which the Sox were leading by eight runs. He later told reporters that he was done pitching for the season, and suggested they confirm that with the team. After the second game, following some confusion from team officials throughout the day, Cora revealed that Jansen was dealing with a sore shoulder and wouldn’t pitch again in the final week.

Now if you're gonna find a way to defend Jansen here you'll say he wanted this team to compete and was fed lies. He was promised from the front office that they weren't going to rebuild and that they'd buy at the deadline. In return for getting duped, he stopped giving a fuck. While they didn't buy at the deadline, the Sox were in contention heading into August. Granted the schedule caught up to them and their shine wore off, but with two months to go they had everything in front of them. That wasn't enough for Kenley it appears. 

Through anonymous players, turns out this kind of behavior wasn't shocking from him. In fact, he sometimes struggled to remember players' names. 

Multiple players, all of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity, registered their disappointment over Jansen’s early departure, though one added: “I can’t say I’m too surprised.” Jansen was known to be somewhat aloof during his time with the Sox, at times unsure of some teammates’ names.

That's what you want out of your closer. As you're competing for a playoff spot in the second half you want one of your top guys to not give a single fuck about the team. Not even know who he's going to war with half the time. That's the ship that Alex Cora captains. 

The good news is that the Sox used that weird moment with Gerrit Cole a few weeks ago to motivate themselves to get into the playoffs. Without conjuring up a fake storyline who is to say where they are today? 

Curious to see who they play once the dust settles today.