4:04pm: The Blue Jays have officially announced that Jansen was placed on the 10-day IL with a finger fracture, calling up Heineman in the corresponding move.
9:31am: Blue Jays catcher Danny Jansen had to make an early exit from yesterday’s game due to what was eventually revealed as a fracture in the knuckle of his right middle finger. During an at-bat in the sixth inning, Rockies left fielder Nolan Jones fouled a ball into Jansen’s exposed right hand, leaving the catcher in obvious discomfort. Jansen remained behind the plate for the rest of the inning, but Alejandro Kirk pinch-hit for Jansen in the top of the seventh.
Tyler Heineman has already been called up from Triple-A as at least a precautionary measure while Jansen undergoes further imaging and tests, as manager John Schneider told Sportsnet’s Ben Nicholson-Smith and other reporters. Given the nature of the injury, it’s hard to imagine that Jansen will be able to avoid the 10-day injured list, leaving the Jays without their starting catcher for at least some of their playoff push. Kirk will take most of the starts in the interim, with Heineman perhaps getting only sparing backup duty.
Jansen has hit .228/.312/.474 with 17 homers over 301 plate appearances this season, translating to a 115 wRC+ that ranks third among all qualified Blue Jays hitters. This adds to Jansen’s resume as one of the more quietly productive catchers in baseball, though due to injuries and splitting time with Kirk and other Toronto backstops, he has only amassed 754 PA since the start of the 2021 season. This season, Jansen missed a few weeks due to a groin strain, and has perhaps been fortunate to avoid a hand injury until now considering how frequently Jansen is hit by pitches (10) or the natural risk and wear-and-tear of catching duty.
His injury resume includes another finger fracture last season, which kept Jansen for a little over a month. That particular fracture was near Jansen’s left pinky finger, and given the wide variance and severity of finger-related problems, it is far to too soon to tell if Jansen’s current issue is anywhere as severe, or how long he might be out of action.
Consistency has been a problem all season for Toronto’s lineup, even before Bo Bichette and Matt Chapman went onto the IL earlier this week. Losing Jansen would be another significant hit, though Nicholson-Smith writes that Bichette and Chapman have at least been working out on the field, creating hope that either player might be back at or shortly after the 10-day minimum absence.
Quick recovery.
Jansen’s been taking a lot of punishment behind the plate. Had a big shot last night for the Jays. He’s done a very good job handling the staff this year.
Berrios, Ryu and the bullpen have been doing very well, better than last year definitely a improvement
I wish the BlueJays had kept Jansen and Gabriel Moreno together on the team and traded Kirk. Kirk is okay but Danny mentoring Moreno would have been outstanding.
@jimmer No…. if the Jays kept Moreno with Jansen they would still be stupid and play Jansen over Moreno. They should have traded Jansen last year coming of his hot spot in September.. If people would stop listening to the Roger’s media and actually look up the DEFENSIVE stats on Jansen they would see he is not that good, well below average in to many categories.
Yes his bat has performed well in the spot light times and that is important but the Blue Jays are so bad at seeing what is and what isn’t. If they weren’t they would see Jansen plays better when used less and is actually pretty good coming of the bench (right handed bat which is what they are lacking) which is the contrary for Kirk. Kirk plays better when used more (starting behind the plate not DHing) and is aweful coming of the bench.
Jansen was the guy to deal due to money, team control and teams fear Kirk’s weight.
Not once this year have Blue Jays called on Varsho to log an inning behind home plate, despite the fact his bat is playing like a backup catcher. Was he that bad a backstop? Seems to me an outfield of Merrifield-Kiermaier-Springer with Varsho catching once every 4 games would be OK
I completely agree with you!!
It is more Varsho is that good of a CF – he is tied with Kiermaier for 4th in MLB for CF Outs Above Average at 9., and is 3rd in MLB for CF defense by FanGraphs ratings at 8.4 despite just 410 innings in CF vs everyone else in the top 10 having 600+ innings, some with over 1000. If the Jays didn’t keep him in LF so much due to having Kiermaier it is safe to say he’d lead in most defensive metrics in CF easily.
I’d Is n 6
Although Varsho’s bat has been poor, his defense in the outfield has been outstanding. He’s a big reason why the Jays outfielders lead the league in DRS this season.
He also covers CF too when KK needs a breather.
According to his defensive numbers… yes, he was that bad as a backstop. Backup catchers are supposed to be defense-first, he was a disaster back there. And then you risk getting him hurt, even doing long term damage to the outfield speed that provides 99% of his value, to enjoy that bad defense. You also risk messing up the pitching that’s been carrying the team. He can catch a few innings late in games but he shouldn’t be starting any games there.
Varsho’s played like a 4th outfielder. Jays had another catcher. Prospect plus Gurriel for a 4th outfielder was the trade.
The plan was always for him to be an emergency backup catcher. He’s an elite outfield defender,
Along with Springer, Vlad and Kirk, he’s also having a bad year for extra base power.
That’s why you keep the meat hand behind your back, dude.
Was a catcher my whole life growing up. Behind the back is very unbalanced in your stance, started like that as a young kid but realized the further I advanced the throwing hand should be behind the right leg. Very correct in saying he needs to clean that up or he’s just looking for a ball to do the same thing again. It’s not really bad luck when you leave that out there the way he did. Hopefully he learns from this.