How serious is Kenley Jansen’s cardiac arrhythmia?

Kenley Jansen‘s latest bout with cardiac arrhythmia has the Dodgers scrambling–scrambling to get the 24-year-old right-hander back to the mound and scrambling to put together a ninth-inning committee in the meantime.

Long-term, it seems as if the onus is on Jansen to take better care of himself than he did after being diagnosed with a cardiac arrhythmia in July of last year.

“We’re going to have to make sure he understands everything he needs to do to take care of himself,” Dodgers manager Don Mattingly said.

After last year’s incident, Jansen was ordered to take prescription blood pressure medication and to avoid caffeine. He’s hinted at least once that he neglected the no-caffeine order, however, and it’s possible that stubbornness played a role in Jansen’s relapse.

“With young guys,” Mattingly said, “it’s likeyou tell them what they shouldn’t do, and then they start feeling good and forget about what you shouldn’t do. ‘You should be doing this every day, you should be doing that every day.’ You’re young, you don’t take things as seriously as you probably should.

“That’s why we’ve got to be so serious about it. Everybody involved has to say ‘100 percent healthy, not taking any risk.’ Somebody else has to say that.”

Ronald Belisario, who closed out Wednesday night’s game in Colorado, said that he spoke to Jansen yesterday.

“It’s a possibility that he’ll come back,” Belisario said. “He doesn’t know yet.”

Jansen was scheduled to meet with a doctor Wednesday for further evaluations.

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About J.P. Hoornstra

J.P. Hoornstra covers the Dodgers, Angels and Major League Baseball for the Orange County Register, Los Angeles Daily News, Long Beach Press-Telegram, Torrance Daily Breeze, San Gabriel Valley Tribune, Pasadena Star-News, San Bernardino Sun, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin, Whittier Daily News and Redlands Daily Facts. Before taking the beat in 2012, J.P. covered the NHL for four years. UCLA gave him a degree once upon a time; when he graduated on schedule, he missed getting Arnold Schwarzenegger's autograph on his diploma by five months.