Blue Jays will miss C Danny Jansen off in deadline trade to Red Sox

Old school humanity in clubhouse and behind the plate

Jul 28, 2024

Most of the best MLB catchers would rather catch a shutout and celebrate a win than hit a home run in a loss. Danny Jansen is one of those old-school “best catchers”.

There’s something innate and inescapable that links being a good teammate and being a good catcher. They are attributes impossible to separate when it comes to the basic “tools of ignorance” job description, learning how to lead a pitching staff, with its 13-30 different personalities and skillsets, being able to guide them with cerebral calm, through nine high leverage innings, over 162 games.

On Saturday, Blue Jays lifer Danny Jansen discovered he was being traded to the Boston Red Sox from seeing a scroll across the bottom of a television screen in the clubhouse, as the team came off the field for their choreographed 26-man celebration, following a 7-3 win over Texas. Jansen’s final Blue Jays game was one he did not start, but in which, as always, he paid rapt attention, sharing observations with teammates and coaches, if he thought they might help. Because that’s what good catchers do.

One negative for me! The fact that the 29-year-old, career Blue Jay, a proud member of his organization since being selected in the 16^th round of the 2013 June draft, the fact he had to learn about the trade from a TV screen in the clubhouse is a disgrace.

The game was at Rogers Centre. The general manager and his extensive front-office team of assistants were all in the building. It should have been a given that as soon as MLB Insiders had Tweeted it, even before the player-return of three prospects from the Red Sox was known, even if not yet official, a Jays executive should have been down to the back of the dugout calling Jansen over for a one-on-one in the clubhouse tunnel to let him know that he had been traded, doing it in person.

It’s not a difficult ask. It’s being human. Jansen has spent 11 of his 29 years in the organization. He and his wife Alexis just weeks ago had celebrated the birth of their second child. The young family had flown back to Toronto and were waiting in the Jays family room after the game.

Coincidentally, on Friday after the game as I was heading down the hall to the press box elevator, Jansen had emerged from a side-door to the clubhouse. We walked together for a coupler of minutes, talking about his young family and their future. He said proudly that toddler Miles was being a loving older brother. I told him about my four kids, the same. He said that was his goal -- four children. Beautiful. Now, unless he returns as a free agent in ‘25, none of the kids will remember the Blue Jays. I believed he would be a Jay for a long time, because of who he is. He’s a Blue Jay.

Back in 2017, when I was writing columns at The Star and was invited to be the media lecturer/guinea pig for the Jays’ annual rookie seminar in January at Rogers Centre, at the end of my talk, I double-dipped and chose to write a column with one of the young prospects that was there. I selected the Jansen kid with the funky glasses quietly sitting off on his own, just another of many catchers in the system.

Jansen, then 21-years-old, was competing to advance in the system with a very young Gabby Moreno, Riley Adams. Reese McGuire, Luke Maile, Rafael Lopez and Hagen Danner (now a pitcher). They were among 30 Jays catchers that had participated with at least one farm team or MLB appearance behind the plate in 2017.

A native of Elmhurst, Illinois, Danny had a huge family group out to see his first appearance as a rookie at the White Sox ballpark in Chicago, in 2019. On the final day of the three-game set, on May 19, Jansen was 2-for-4 with a homer in a big win and was the star of the game. As the first-year PR guy, I brought Danny into the hallway outside the clubhouse for his post-game media interview.

Of course, also in the hallway, watching it all, were the families of players. As I came back out of the clubhouse to pack up the backdrop, the one you see in all the TV interviews, before I could start breaking it down, an older woman came quietly across the concourse and explained that she was Danny’s grandma and could I see if he would come out and take a picture with her in front of the colourful Jays backdrop.

Even with the equipment truck impatiently waiting, I went back in. Danny was sprawled in a chair at his locker, deep in thought – and likely deep in exhaustion. He listened, nodded, then tried to move, but couldn’t, so he respectfully asked if I could go tell his grandma that he was still in the shower. I delivered the message and packed up the screen. When Jansen emerged, headed for the bus to the charter and the next town, he headed straight for her, hugged her and took all the selfies she needed.

When I was struggling to get around, in 2020-21 in Buffalo and Dunedin on my since-replaced right hip, looking like Chester from the Gunsmoke TV series (Google it kids), Jansen would with great concern, ask me how I was doing and if he could do anything. When we were on the road and he had a chance to not-blow-past-me on the walk from bus to clubhouse, he would always slow down as a sign of respect, much like Usain Bolt in those early 100-metres heats.

But most of all, I respected the way, technique-wise, he would not take a knee with runners on base, catching the best way he knew how, the way he had been taught, in a traditional crouch, with low target and ready to slide left or right to block pitches in the dirt, to help his pitcher, which made him a throwback and a favourite of Blue Jays hurlers that relied on breaking balls at the bottom of the zone. They knew they could throw anything in the dirt and, unless it hit a corner of the plate, Jano would keep it in front of him. “Damn the nerds and throw that nasty splitter.”

So, it’s with nothing but admiration that we wish you good luck in Boston, Danny, and we will look for you with a big ovation when you’re back in town, August 23-25.

Griff’s The Pitch

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