Please correct me if I’m wrong, but catcher Danny Jansen of the Toronto Blue Jays is now recovering from a broken wrist and is anticipated to miss “a couple of weeks”. Pun or no pun, there’s no getting past this man.
This development is just the most recent in the backstop’s seemingly never-ending line of unfortunate injuries. Although Jansen, 28, is incredibly gifted on the baseball field, he hasn’t been able to fully realize his potential in his career thus far. Every season he seemed to be dealing with some bizarre, nonsensical injuries that eventually hurt him and the squad.
Naturally, this isn’t Jansen’s fault in the slightest, but it has some Blue Jays supporters agitated. The power-hitting catcher has only appeared in over 100 games once in his six-year career, and that eventually led to his worst full season in the major leagues.
Jansen is currently among the Blue Jays’ top possibilities for an extension. At the end of the season, he will become a free agent, so is it really worth extending his contract if he can’t reach his full potential? This has happened in the past with other extremely talented athletes who are unable to stay on the field. Grady Sizemore’s inability to maintain his health wasn’t his fault. Ditto for the likes of Mark Prior, Stephen Strasburg, and David Wright
Given that Jansen has played essentially identical to Bonds over the last 162 games, this is a difficult position. This gives one hope for what he could accomplish given a full, healthy season of games, but he hasn’t demonstrated that he is capable of doing so yet.
Please understand that this is a group of people who genuinely support Danny Jansen. Even though he is of immense significance to the team, it has been difficult to watch him lose so much time throughout the years. That is undoubtedly a knock to his worth in the front office of the Blue Jays.
With 35 home runs, 110 RBI, and an incredible 129 wRC+ over his last 162 regular season games, Jansen appears to have been 29 percent above league average at the plate. To put that into perspective a bit, catchers around the league averaged around an 89 wRC+ last year.
Nobody needs to be convinced that Jansen is a top shelf catcher when he’s on the field. It’s the whole “staying on the field” thing that’s holding him back and ultimately not awarding him a payday and long-term extension.
Last year, the backstop missed time in May and June with a strained left groin. Then his season ended prematurely when he was hit by a foul ball in early September. That broken right middle finger slammed the door on the rest of his season, including the postseason. Keep in mind that this is only taking 2023 into consideration. Prior to that, he broke bones in his left hand and various ailments in his knees and hamstrings.
If you’re the Blue Jays, why would you bother handing out a hefty raise to a player that can’t stay healthy? Again, it’s not Jansen’s fault, but baseball’s a business and there’s little to no point in paying a player to sit on the injured list. Currently, the hope is that Jansen gets his injured time out of the way early this year and is able to stay healthy throughout the entire regular season.
Should he manage to accomplish this and carry on with his strong play both at the plate and behind it, the Blue Jays will be even more inclined to grant him an extension. As long as he plays on the field, he will be valuable due to his contributions to the clubhouse.
Alejandro Kirk will take over behind the plate in Jansen’s absence, while spring training standout Brian Serven is currently the front-runner to make the Opening Day team as backup catcher.
Leave a Reply