GLENDALE, Ariz. — An era came to a close Friday night.

Dodgers manager Dave Roberts was at dinner when he got a call from Kenley Jansen. The franchise’s all-time saves leader, one of only 30 pitchers in baseball history with over 300 saves and one of only two pitchers in baseball history to reach 1,000 career strikeouts in fewer than 700 innings pitched, was moving on.

Jansen had agreed on a one-year, $16 million contract with the Atlanta Braves.

“He’s reached out to a lot of people, from Andrew (Friedman) to teammates, to myself, to coaches, and really expressed his gratitude for being a Dodger, what it meant to him and his family,” Roberts said. “He’s always gonna be a part of my family.

“He made my job much easier. To have a guy that you can count on to post, to stay healthy and to be good, really good, is certainly not lost on me. I think that over the last few years, there’s been some sentiment that he wasn’t what he should have been, and that is completely false. I do think that as a closer, things are more magnified, which they should be. But this guy was as dependable as any in the history of the game. The numbers don’t lie. They really don’t.”

But the relationship between a fan base and a team’s closer is an emotional one, not a statistical one. Jansen was booed more than once by Dodger fans who viewed his occasional stumbles as unacceptable breaches of faith.

“Here’s what I will say – as a fan, you root for your players, your team and you’re in it with them,” said Roberts, who had to defend Jansen frequently in recent years. “I think that when someone has been so good and he’s not as good as you’ve seen at times, I think that fans get upset by it. And they’re entitled to voice their opinions.

“But I do think that we’re gonna look back and those same fans that booed him are going to look back in hindsight and go, ‘Man, he was a heck of a Dodger. He was a Dodger great.’”

No one will replace Jansen – and everyone will replace Jansen.

The Dodgers do not plan to designate a single reliever to succeed Jansen and pitch the ninth inning exclusively. Instead, the decision will be made nightly based on matchups and availability.

“I think that if you look at our roster right now, we have close to a handful of guys that can finish games,” Roberts said. “If there’s a guy that I would say right now, who’s essentially a closer, obviously it’s probably Blake (Treinen). But I don’t know right now if that’s the best thing for the Dodgers, if that’s the way it plays out.

“You obviously want as many great arms back there, and to have a guy that gets left and right out. But I do think that having relievers and being able to deploy them whenever you see the best opportunity to win that night’s game, certainly is a benefit.”

Treinen had pitched as a closer for the Washington Nationals and Oakland A’s and was the Dodgers’ best reliever the past two seasons. Roberts said he plans to deploy Treinen in the same “fireman” role he has filled the past two years, facing the most dangerous hitters in the opposing lineup regardless of inning.

That’s fine with Treinen. He doesn’t expect to assume Jansen’s role now.

“No. Wherever they want me,” Treinen said. “I just tell myself to be the best in whatever my role is. That’s my goal. So if they want to do what I’ve been doing the last two years, I’m fine with that. In fact, I totally get why they would want me to do that. We’ve got guys like myself, Huddy (Daniel Hudson), a healthy Jimmy (Nelson), Tommy (Kahnle), Brusdar (Graterol), (Shane) Greene. A bunch of guys have closing experience and will be closers at some point if not already.

“I think the biggest thing is – like this organization does so well – lining us up in a spot that best suits our team for winning. If one day they want me to face certain batters that are in the ninth, then I’m sure they’ll go down that road and try it. If it’s somebody else because they like their matchups, that’s fine too. If they like my matchups earlier in the game … I don’t stress out worrying about it.”

Treinen acknowledged “I love closing, I’m not going to sit here and lie to you.” But it isn’t a top priority.

“If me being in the ninth and other guys aren’t comfortable in innings before that because they’re used to closing, that’s not me serving my team the best I can,” he said. “If closing were so important to me, I probably wouldn’t have come to the Dodgers (as a free agent), to be honest with you.”

Once seen as a fallback option when a true closer couldn’t be found, the “closer-by-committee” approach appears to be coming into vogue with matchup-motivated, analytics-oriented front offices (which also see a way to allocate money to other parts of the roster if a reliever doesn’t have to be paid as a closer).

“It’s a fairly new concept of lining guys up,” Treinen said. “In traditional forms, being a ninth guy comes with some ego. And I say that with the most respect because I think you kind of have to a little bit. Demand ‘That’s my spot.’

“I would say if an organization’s motto is lining guys up with their stuff against the opponent’s hitters every game, then closer-by-committee shouldn’t be an issue.”

FREEMAN HYPE MAN

When Freddie Freeman joined the Dodgers for their team meeting before his first workout Friday, Roberts had catching prospect Carson Taylor stand up in front of the team and introduce Freeman.

A native of Duluth, Georgia (just outside Atlanta), Taylor grew up a Braves fan and Freeman was his favorite player.

“That was just such a cool moment,” Taylor said. “I literally grew up watching him on TV, going to games and trying to imitate his swing in the backyard.”

When Taylor told Freeman that, the former Brave thanked him for making him feel old. The two took a picture together that Taylor will keep as a memento.

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“It was definitely a surreal experience to look him in the eye and be in the same locker room with him,” Taylor said.

COMING ATTRACTIONS

Roberts said he anticipates Freeman making his spring Dodgers debut possibly Tuesday against the Cincinnati Reds, with Mookie Betts likely to start appearing in games “middle of the week, next week.”