DETROIT (AP) — The Detroit Tigers have added one of baseball's most accomplished closers.
Kenley Jansen and the Tigers finalized an $11 million, one-year contract on Wednesday that includes a club option for another season.
“He’s one of the best to ever do it,” said Tigers general manager Scott Harris, who previously worked in the San Francisco Giants’ front office. “I’ve admired him from afar — and up close in the NL West.”
The right-hander, fourth on the career list with 476 saves, gets a $9 million salary next season and the Tigers hold a $12 million option with a $2 million buyout.
A 38-year-old Jansen is a four-time All-Star who was NL Reliever of the Year in 2016 and 2017. He trails just Hall of Famers Mariano Rivera (652), Trevor Hoffman (601) and Lee Smith (478) in saves.
Jansen leads active players with 933 appearances, including 62 last season with the Los Angeles Angels. He was 5-4 with a 2.59 ERA and had 29 saves in 30 chances in 2025 after signing a $10 million, one-year deal with the Angels.
He had 25 or more saves in each of the last 13 non-shortened seasons. He had 40-plus saves for the fourth time in 2022 when he led the NL with 41 for Atlanta.
Jansen signed with the Dodgers as a catcher out of Curaçao at the age of 17 in 2004, became a pitcher in 2009 and was with the franchise from 2010-21. He went on to play with the Braves for one season, in Boston for two years and with the Angels in 2025.
The 6-foot-5, 265-pound Jansen helped teams advance to the postseason 10 times, including in 2020 with the World Series champion Dodgers.
Detroit has been in the playoffs the last two years and is making moves to improve its chances of returning to the postseason.
What the franchise chooses to do with two-time AL Cy Young Award winner Tarik Skubal this offseason will be closely watched.
“The reason that all of this is such a big topic is because we have the best pitcher in baseball,” Tigers manager A.J. Hinch said recently. “And I love that he’s a Tiger.”
The 29-year-old Skubal is entering his final year of club control by the Tigers, who last won a World Series in 1984.
Harris said he was not interested in discussing hypothetical options with Skubal on a call to discuss the addition of Jansen.
“We have a good team right now and we’re trying to win,” Harris said.
The Tigers have added some quality pitchers, agreeing to a $19 million, two-year contract with right-hander Kyle Finnegan and a $7 million, one-year deal with right-hander Drew Anderson.
Detroit has not, however, made any major moves to improve its performance at the plate after an uneven season offensively. The Tigers finished one game behind AL Central champion Cleveland and as a wild card lost to Seattle in a Division Series.
Harris said the team is counting on returning players to develop during the offseason.
“Just because a lot of the names are the same, doesn’t mean the team is the same,” Harris said.
AP MLB: https://apnews.com/MLB
FILE - Los Angeles Angels relief pitcher Kenley Jansen smiles after striking out Houston Astros' Mauricio Dubon for the final out of the ninth inning and earning a save during a baseball game Friday, Sept. 26, 2025, in Anaheim, Calif. (AP Photo/Jayne Kamin-Oncea, File)
FILE - Los Angeles Angels relief pitcher Kenley Jansen throws during the ninth inning of a baseball game against the Kansas City Royals, Tuesday, Sept. 2, 2025, in Kansas City, Mo. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel, File)
DOVER AIR FORCE BASE, Del. (AP) — President Donald Trump on Wednesday met with family members of two Iowa National Guard members and a U.S. civilian who were killed in an attack in the Syrian desert.
The meeting was held at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware before the remains of the deceased were transferred to their families. Trump was joining the families and top administration and military officials to watch the so-called dignified transfer of the remains.
The solemn dignified transfer ritual honors U.S. service members killed in action. Trump, who traveled to Dover several times in his first term, once described it as “the toughest thing I have to do” as president.
The two guardsmen killed in Syria on Saturday were Sgt. Edgar Brian Torres-Tovar, 25, of Des Moines, and Sgt. William Nathaniel Howard, 29, of Marshalltown, according to the U.S. Army. Both were members of the 1st Squadron, 113th Cavalry Regiment, and have been hailed as heroes by the Iowa National Guard.
Torres-Tovar's and Howard’s families were at Dover for the return of their remains, alongside Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds, members of Iowa’s congressional delegation and leaders of the Iowa National Guard. Their remains will be taken to Iowa after the transfer.
A U.S. civilian working as an interpreter, identified Tuesday as Ayad Mansoor Sakat, of Macomb, Michigan, was also killed. Three other members of the Iowa National Guard were injured in the attack. The Pentagon has not identified them.
They were among hundreds of U.S. troops deployed in eastern Syria as part of a coalition fighting the Islamic State group.
There is no formal role for a president at a dignified transfer other than to watch in silence, with all thoughts about what happened in the past and what is happening at Dover kept to himself for the moment. There is no speaking by any of the dignitaries who attend, with the only words coming from the military officials who direct the highly choreographed transfers.
Trump arrived without first lady Melania Trump, who had been scheduled to accompany him, according to the president's public schedule. Her office declined to elaborate, with spokesperson Nick Clemens saying the first lady "was not able to attend today.”
During the process at Dover, transfer cases draped with the American flag that hold the soldiers' remains are carried from the belly of a hulking C-17 military aircraft to a waiting vehicle under the watchful eyes of grieving family members. The vehicle then transports the remains to the mortuary facility at the base, where the fallen are prepared for burial at their final resting places.
Howard's stepfather, Jeffrey Bunn, has said Howard “loved what he was doing and would be the first in and last out.” He said Howard had wanted to be a soldier since he was a boy.
In a social media post, Bunn, who is chief of the Tama, Iowa, police department, said Howard was a loving husband and an “amazing man of faith.” He said Howard’s brother, a staff sergeant in the Iowa National Guard, would escort “Nate” back to Iowa.
Torres-Tovar was remembered as a “very positive” family-oriented person who always put others first, according to fellow Guard members who were deployed with him and issued a statement to the local TV broadcast station WOI.
Dina Qiryaqoz, the daughter of the civilian interpreter who was killed, said Wednesday in a statement that her father worked for the U.S. Army during the invasion of Iraq from 2003 to 2007. Sakat is survived by his wife and four adult children.
The interpreter was from Bakhdida, Iraq, a small Catholic village southeast of Mosul, and the family immigrated to the U.S. in 2007 on a special visa, Qiryaqoz said. At the time of his death, Sakat was employed as an independent contractor for Virginia-based Valiant Integrated Services.
Sakat's family was still struggling to believe that he is gone. “He was a devoted father and husband, a courageous interpreter and a man who believed deeply in the mission he served,” Qiryaqoz said.
Trump told reporters over the weekend that he was mourning the deaths. He vowed retaliation. The most recent instance of U.S. service members killed in action was in January 2024, when three American troops died in a drone attack in Jordan.
Saturday's deadly attack followed a rapprochement between the U.S. and Syria, bringing the former pariah state into a U.S.-led coalition fighting the Islamic State group.
Trump has forged a relationship with interim Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, the onetime leader of an Islamic insurgent group who led the ouster of former President Bashar Assad.
Trump, who met with al-Sharaa last month at the White House, said Monday that the attack had nothing to do with the Syrian leader, who Trump said was “devastated by what happened.”
During his first term, Trump visited Dover in 2017 to honor a U.S. Navy SEAL killed during a raid in Yemen, in 2019 for two Army officers whose helicopter crashed in Afghanistan, and in 2020 for two Army soldiers killed in Afghanistan when a person dressed in an Afghan army uniform opened fire.
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Associated Press writers Konstantin Toropin and Darlene Superville in Washington, Isabella Volmert in Lansing, Michigan, and Hannah Fingerhut in Des Moines, Iowa, contributed to this report.
President Donald Trump talks to reporters as he departs from the South Lawn of the White House, Saturday, Dec. 13, 2025, in Washington, en route to Baltimore to attend the Army-Navy football game. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
This undated combo photo created with images released by the Iowa National Guard shows Sgts. William Nathaniel Howard, left, and Edgar Brian Torres-Tovar. (Iowa National Guard via AP)
