Kenley Jansen records 479th career save, moves past Lee Smith into third place on all-time list

Jansen is now behind just Mariano Rivera and Trevor Hoffman in MLB history

Detroit Tigers closer Kenley Jansen continued his climb up the all-time saves list with his preservation of his team's 2-1 win over the Kansas City Royals on Tuesday. Working the ninth, Jansen allowed one hit in the scoreless frame to lower his ERA for the season to 2.45 and pick up his third save of 2026.

That save was the 479th of Jansen's 17-year (and counting) MLB career and pushed him past Hall of Famer Lee Smith on the all-time saves list and into third place. Here's that updated career leaderboard: 

Mariano Rivera

652

Trevor Hoffman

601

Kenley Jansen

479

Lee Smith

478

Craig Kimbrel

440

After the landmark save, Jansen addressed his Tigers teammates and spoke to them about the value of perseverance, treating each day's game as its own thing and not a continuation of what happened the day or week or season prior. 

"When you do that, it doesn't matter what people think about you or if they think you don't have it anymore," Jansen said, via the Detroit News. "It shows you have the consistency. Here I am today, still doing it at a really good level. I'm proud of myself and I'm proud of my teammates for grinding this game out."

The Royals got out to an early lead Tuesday before the Tigers put two runs on the board in the eighth inning on a wild pitch and a Dillon Dingler double. Jansen allowed a leadoff ninth-inning single to Lane Thomas, then induced groundouts from Salvador Perez and Vinnie Pasquantino before Starling Marte flew out to end the game.

"It takes a lot to be in this room in general and then on top of that to have the longevity and legacy that he has," Tigers manager A.J. Hinch said of Jansen after the game. "I don't know how many games he's pitched that haven't mattered. He's at the back end of games that matter and he's done it for a really long time. And now he's third all-time in the entire history of the sport.

The win was the Tigers' fourth in a row and pushed them to 8-9 on the season as they continue working to recover from a slow start. Detroit is angling to make the postseason for a third straight year.

Barring injury or wholly unexpected ineffectiveness, Jansen at some point this season should become just the third pitcher ever to log 500 saves. Reaching such an elusive benchmark would put Jansen in line for a Hall of Fame plaque one day. At age 38, he's still pitching at a high level, so the saves should continue rolling in. For his career, the Curacao native with the often unhittable cutter has pitched to a 2.57 ERA and a 155 ERA+ and 1,284 strikeouts in 931 innings. Jansen is a four-time All-Star selection.