Better know your Blue Jays 40-man: Danny Jansen

After a few days off, it’s time to get back to this.

So, a prescription for glasses made all the difference, for Danny Jansen? You would think a professional baseball player would have his eyes check regularly. But, from a FanGraphs story:

“Last year, I realized that things weren’t as clear anymore, so after the season I went to the eye doctor,” explained Jansen. “He told me I had astigmatism, so I got a prescription and started wearing glasses last fall. I’m seeing everything so clear now, like a normal person with good eyes would.”

After hitting .218/.316/.269 in the lower minors, in 2016, Jansen hit .323/.400/.484 last year (split between Dunedin, New Hampshire and Buffalo). Since he’s always been thought of as having a good defensive catcher, it wasn’t a tough decision to put him onto the 40-man and protect him from this fall’s Rule 5 draft .

Now, it is fair to say that we’ve had a pretty lousy track record with catchers of the future. It seems like that last catcher of the future to actually become a catcher of the present was Pat Borders. But I have high hopes for Jansen (admittedly, I had high hopes for JP Arencibia, and a dozen other catcher of the future types).

Is there any chance Jansen makes the Jays out of spring training?

Barring injury or injuries, there is little chance. Odds are that Maile gets the job of backing up Martin (unless a catcher is acquired between now and the start of the season).

Danny should start the season in Buffalo and prove that his 2017 season wasn’t a fluke.

Will we see him in Toronto this year?

I think so. At very least he should get a September call up.

Or if Martin were to hit the DL, I’d think that Jansen would come up and get the bulk of the playing time, but then I really don’t want to see Maile play several games in a row.

Or perhaps there is a small chance that, if the Jays fall out of the race and if Martin is having a good year, and if Jansen is doing well, perhaps someone would want to trade for Martin and Jansen could get the starting job. Yeah, that one is a long shot.

When will Jansen become our starting catcher?

Well, Martin is signed for 2 more years.

What I could see happening is, in 2019, is both Martin and Jansen on the active roster, letting Russell be mentor for Danny for a season and have them share the catching duties. There are few people who could be a better teacher than Russell Martin.

The next year, Jansen could take the job.

That’s assuming Jansen continues to play as well as he did last year. And, of course, presuming that Max Pentecost can’t be injury free and can’t play himself back into the conversation. Let’s presume that. I’d be very glad to be wrong about Max.