Kenley Jansen pays for Dutch citizen's MS treatments

Kenley Jansen's 2018 season isn't off to the best start on the field. Away from the diamond, he's already having an All-Star campaign.

Earlier this week, the Los Angeles Dodgers closer quietly came to the aid of Amadeo Ellensburg, a Dutch citizen who's battling multiple sclerosis and is unable to afford the required treatment. Ellensburg is in a wheelchair and has been trying to raise money to travel to Russia for experimental stem cell therapy he cannot otherwise afford.

After seeing his story on social media, Jansen - who is also a citizen of the Netherlands as a native of Curacao - and his brother volunteered to cover the rest of the costs and will pay the 60,000 euros (approximately $72,000) needed to get Ellensburg to Russia for the treatment, according to Bill Shaikin of the Los Angeles Times.

Ellensburg shared Jansen's gesture on his Facebook account, and word quickly spread of the closer's generosity to a total stranger.

"I can't help everybody, but to see him struggle as a young kid like that, it stops your heart," the 30-year-old said. "Hopefully he becomes better, lives life healthy, and enjoys his family. You just want to see him healthy and back on his feet."

In a Dutch-language Facebook post translated by Shaikin, Ellensburg, who hopes the stem cell treatments might help him to walk again, wrote that Jansen's gesture has made his "dream come(s) true."

Since Ellensburg lives thousands of miles away in the mainland Netherlands, he and Jansen have never met. But Jansen said he hopes to change that when he visits his home country in the offseason.

Jansen, already one of the most accomplished Dutch pitchers in MLB history, has represented the Netherlands in each of the last three World Baseball Classic tournaments.