June 2013: Jansen signed with the Blue Jays for $100,000 after they chose him in the 16th round, out of Appleton High School in Wisconsin. Wes Penick was the scout. 

Danny was poised to go earlier in the 2013 draft, but in his third high school game of the season, a foul ball struck him on the wrist and broke his pisiform, a pea-shaped bone where hand meets wrist. A couple of months spent recovering ruined his season and he rushed back to play in a playoff game with a brace on his wrist, but things had changed.

“Once that happened, a lot of teams backed away,” said Jansen. “That’s when I really thought about college because a lot of teams went out the window . . . that was really stressful for me.”

One team that remained in the picture was the Blue Jays, who used a 16th-round pick to select the native of Elmhurst, Illinois.

“I’m grateful for it every single day,” Jansen said. “I really wanted to play pro ball—college is always going to be there.”

Jansen signed for $100,000 and he has made fans of people all across the organization. (Shi Davidi - Baseball America - 4/21/2017)

Dan shows surprising refinement to his game despite his roots in Wisconsin, which has produced just four high school position players to reach the Major Leagues in the last four decades. He has contributed immediately since entering pro ball and has the potential to become a two-way contributor behind the plate.

Dan entered the 2014 season in tremendous shape, and is a strong, physical and powerful presence. (Spring 2015)

In 2015, the Baseball America Prospect Handbook rated Jansen the 20th-best prospect in the Blue Jays organization. He was at #22 during the offseason before 2016 spring training, and was at #22 in the spring of 2017. But they moved Danny up to #7 in the winter before 2018 spring camp opened.

He rose to 3rd-best Jays' prospect in the spring of 2019.

2017 season: Dan climbed from the Florida State League to Triple-A that season and was at the best of his career at each stop. He posted an .884 OPS behind an impressive .323/.400/.484 slash line across all three levels. He doesn’t have the power attributed to the typical catcher, especially with a 41 percent batted ball ground ball rate. Still, the right-hander showed pop in his first full, healthy season, smashing 25 doubles and 10 home runs, nearly all to his pull side.

Jansen also doesn’t strike out, walking more times than he struck out this season (40:41). He has matured each season behind the plate. His receiving skills have improved, although he was never a liability, allowing only four passed balls and four errors. He has an average arm, and only threw out 24 percent of his base runners, but that could improve.

July 2018: Jansen represented the Blue Jays in the Futures All-Star game. He sparked a USA rally in the fourth by launching a changeup up and out for a 381-foot game-tying home run to left, which was quickly followed up by Ke'Bryan Hayes' tater to left-center. Toronto's top catching prospect finished 1-for-2 with two runs driven in.

As Danny prepared to make his Major League debut in a 3-1 loss to the Royals, he was a man in demand.  Jansen made the rounds for a series of interviews and tried to put into perspective just how special the evening at Kauffman Stadium would be for him.

"It's still pretty surreal," Jansen said before the game. "My brother was a baseball player, my dad was a baseball player. I'm glad they can live this through me. After the first catch or the first ball that I block, it's just play ball."

Jansen singled through the left side in his first at-bat against Royals starter Brad Keller.  He added a second single in the eighth, a slow roller down the third-base line, off Royals reliever Brandon Maurer. Jansen finished 2-for-3 and he threw out Rosell Herrera trying to steal second. 

"When I got in the box, I was just trying to breathe and put a barrel on the ball," Jansen said of his first hit. "That's what happened, just found a hole. I couldn't believe it at first as I was rounding first base."

Making the evening all the more meaningful was the fact that Jansen's older brother, Matthew, lives in Kansas City. Matthew Jansen is a school teacher in St. Joseph, Mo., which is a short drive from Kansas City.  "He knew the Blue Jays were coming to Kansas City," Danny Jansen said. "It couldn't have worked out better."

Jansen's parents were able to come down from Wisconsin to see the debut in which Jansen caught right-hander Sean Reid-Foley, who went five innings and took the loss in his Major League debut.

Jansen took comfort in the reassuring words of his Major League teammates. "They just told me it's the same game," Jansen said. "The lights are a little brighter and you can see a little better. But it's the same game. That's the best advice I've received."  (Falkoff - mlb.com - 8/13/2018)

August 20, 2018: Danny feels like he's living in a dream, and he just hopes that nobody wakes him up any time soon. If a whirlwind of a first week in the Major Leagues wasn't enough, now he's sharing the field with one of his boyhood idols. In a moment that was 14 years in the making, Jansen was reunited with Orioles star outfielder Adam Jones during the August 20 game against the Orioles. There might be a 10-year age gap between these two, but there's also a special bond that dates back to their time together in Appleton, Wisconsin.

Jansen grew up three minutes away from the home ballpark of the Class A Wisconsin Timber Rattlers. His parents volunteered to become a host family for the Mariners affiliate. And for 130 games during the 2004 season, they opened their home to the man who would go on to become a five-time All-Star.

"It was amazing. It was a dream inside of a dream," said Jansen, who caught up with Jones before the game and exchanged pleasantries at the plate during an at-bat in the first inning. "I've always wanted to be a Major League baseball player, but to be on the same field as Adam, it was a dream. I talked to him last night. I texted him and said, 'Man, that was just crazy that we got to do that tonight.' He said, 'I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world. It was awesome.'"

Jones wasn't the only member of the Timber Rattlers organization who was welcomed into the Jansen family with open arms. The Jansens hosted a large number of players, including former Major League lefty Bobby Livingston, dating back to when Danny was 7 years old.

Jansen and Jones have remained in touch over the years, and their relationship resembles something that you'd normally see from brothers. Toronto's promising prospect even jokes that he tries not to bother the former Gold Glover too much these days because he did enough of that when he was younger. He figures Jones had his fill. But one of the coolest parts of this relationship for Jansen? It scored him some pretty impressive bragging rights while growing up. Not too many people can drop a name like Jones and call him a personal friend.

"When I was younger, I would tell everybody about that, because he was a superstar in the Major Leagues," Jansen said. "It was really cool, and we were fortunate to have a lot of guys who were awesome people coming through. They treated our family well. We treated them well, and it's a relationship that we're never going to forget." (Gregor Chisholm - MLB.com)

The close ties to the Timber Rattlers also helped fuel Jansen's love for the sport he now plays for a living. That's a good thing for the Blue Jays, because the club's No. 3 prospect, according to MLB Pipeline, has a bright future and is expected to be a cornerstone for this team alongside an emerging core of talent that includes Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Bo Bichette.

Jansen entered play recently with hits in each of his first six games. The only other players to do that in Toronto franchise history are outfielder Jesse Barfield (1981) and Ryan Goins (2013), who had hits in each of their first eight.

"It definitely helped make it more passionate, I think. Just to have all of those baseball guys around, you get to see what it's like," Jansen said. "I didn't really think anything of it when I was younger, but now that I've been in the Minor Leagues and know what it's like, it definitely helped fuel that fire for me, I think." (Gregor Chisholm - MLB.com)

Throughout his Minor League career, Jansen has had a knack for building relationships with his pitching staff. It's a skill that's crucial for a catcher and one that often goes unnoticed. It can't be measured by a metric or be seen watching game tape, it can only be heard through sound bites.

Buffalo Bisons manager Bobby Meacham, who managed Jansen said, "Right away, I noticed that Danny is a guy that everyone really liked," Meacham said. "I've heard quite a few pitchers say, 'Hey, that's my guy' … but the bottom line is, when you've got a pitcher saying that about a catcher, that's pretty special. That means he's formed a relationship that is necessary to be successful."

Those relationships are a part of the game that Jansen focuses on. He sees the value in making sure his pitchers throw with confidence, and he knows how to help his teammates out of a jam.

"When you like a guy and you believe that he's not just for himself, you trust him," Meacham said. "I think that's what Danny concentrates on. He concentrates a lot on getting their trust."

That comes from spending time together away from the game. Jansen grabs dinner with his teammates and chats about things other than baseball whenever he can.

"Just gaining their trust as humans, I think that goes a long way," Jansen said. "Being personable, that definitely translates to the field."

Having a catcher like Jansen bodes well for the Blue Jays' future. All indications suggest he's the kind of catcher that pitchers want to pitch to. And if his offensive numbers are any indication of the things he can do with the bat, he should be a stalwart in Toronto for years to come.   (Aaron Rose - MLB.com- Aug 30, 2018)

In 2018, Jansen spent most of the year in Buffalo, playing 88 games and hitting a solid .275/.390/.473 with 12 home runs and 21 doubles before he was called up to The Show and made his Major League debut on August 13. He played in 31 games for Toronto, hitting .247/.347/.432 with six doubles and three home runs in 95 plate appearances, striking out only 17 times, holding his own against big league pitching.

May 9, 2020: Danny Jansen on his mom, Kathy on Mother's Day:

Danny knows that his mother, Kathy, would also love to be at the ballpark right now, where she continues to be his biggest supporter.

“She’s an amazing person. She’s always been there for me, my dad [Steve], too, and they’ve always made sacrifices for me," Jansen said. "She’s made so many sacrifices with her time and by buying me things when I was younger. I know that she never wants to miss another Opening Day, so we were going to make that happen this year. That’s going to be something going forward, she’s never going to miss one of those. She just means the world to me. I wish I could be playing baseball right now in front of her. I know that means the world to her. They just got a new TV on the deck and they love spending time out there watching me play baseball. I wish I could be with her, and Happy Mother’s Day, Mom!”  –Keegan Matheson

Jansen came into 2020 with the starting catcher job pretty much sewn up, and the Jays were looking to have him and another catching prospect, Reese McGuire, splitting the playing time. In spring training, Jansen looked incredible, hitting .500/.565/1.200 with four home runs in just nine games before things were shut down.

When the season started again, Jansen had cooled considerably and he hit just .155/.307/.268 through the first month and a bit of the season. But as the season wore on, he found his stride a bit more, posting a .224/.321/.490 slash line over the last month of the season (18 games) with four of his six home runs coming over that span. Overall, while Jansen hit for just a .183 batting average, his .313 OBP and .358 SLG were much better with the OBP improving on his 2019 numbers considerably. That was good for an 85 OPS+ (now he was just 15% worse than the average big leaguer in terms of offensive production) and he had a WAR of 0.6 (according to Baseball Reference, 0.4 according to Fangraphs) over 43 games.

Jansen did have a huge Game 2 in the Wild Card series against Tampa Bay, hitting two solo home runs and accounting for all of the Blue Jays’ runs in that game.

That said, some of the advanced metrics give us pause. His exit velocity was very poor in 2020; it dipped to 85.1 mph on average, sitting in the fifth percentile in the league. He also was in just the 31st percentile when it came to the percentage of his balls that were considered hard-hit. On the bright side, he was above average in barrel percentage (55th percentile), whiff percentage (56th percentile) and was near the top of the league in walk rate (88th percentile). But his pitch framing was in just the 26th percentile. (Dec 23, 2020 - Jay Blue)

 2021 Season: Spending several days a week in a batting cage alongside Teoscar Hernandez and Bo Bichette sounds like a worthy tutorial for a major league hitter looking to have a greater impact.

And Danny Jansen is taking advantage of the opportunity.

 Boosted by a sweet-swinging September and a new mindset at the plate, the Blue Jays catcher is committed to add contributions on offence to his solid and improving defensive work at the other side of the dish.

 So Jansen has been hard at it this off-season, working alongside two of the Jays’ most versatile and accomplished hitters, both to keep his game sharp, but ideally to help build on his strong late-season contributions in 2021.

“I always have considered myself a hitter, especially when I was younger,” Jansen said in an interview earlier at a facility that has replaced the Jays player development complex for some on the team. “So I always thought it would come. I’ve always felt I was going to hit. Obviously the big leagues are completely different from the minor leagues and I’ve had to learn.”

Clearly, task No. 1 for Jansen is to be the defensive quarterback, a task he has relished in his three full big-league seasons thus far. From guarding the plate to managing pitchers, he’s improved season-to-season in those areas.

But on a team with a high-powered offensive attack, Jansen has taken it personally not to be a weak link in the order, especially with the flashes of power he has shown at times, and he believes can be a factor in the majors.

After missing 28 games with a hamstring strain — spanning two separate trips on the injured list last summer — Jansen returned for what he vowed would be a September to remember. It began with a home run in his first at-bat and included a 19-for-59 stretch (for a .322 average) over his remaining 21 games.  (Rob Longley - Dec 21, 2021)

PALS WITH ROWDY

March 25, 2022: It’s been a couple of years since Danny popped the question, and Rowdy Tellez still wonders whether his friend was joking.

It was before Tellez was traded from the Blue Jays to the Brewers in 2021, and prior to the pandemic in 2020, when his best friend in baseball (“My brother,” Tellez says) told Tellez he’d gotten engaged to his girlfriend, Alexis Vrabel. While they all talked, Jansen asked the question so flippantly that Tellez thinks it might have been in jest.

“Do you want to be the officiant?” Jansen said.

Without a moment’s hesitation, Tellez said yes.

“They were like, ‘Really?’ Tellez said. “I said, ‘Yeah, let’s do it. I would love to.’”

That’s how Tellez came to be standing before Danny and Alexis and their families in Florida in the offseason, marrying two of his dearest friends. It was the least Tellez could do. The Jansen family of Appleton, Wis., came into Tellez’s life when he needed them most, sometime after Danny and Rowdy were both drafted by the Blue Jays in 2013. Jansen was a 16th-round pick out of Appleton West High School, and Tellez was an above-slot sign in the 30th round out of Elk Grove High School in California. They rose together through the Minor Leagues with stops from Dunedin, Fla., to Lansing, Mich., to Buffalo, N.Y. 

The Jansen family became even more important to Tellez after his mother, Lori, was diagnosed with melanoma in 2016, and later with terminal brain cancer. She passed away on Aug. 19, 2018—two weeks before Tellez made his Major League debut and batting just after Jansen. Tellez knocked a pinch-hit double in his first career plate appearance. Tellez hit three doubles the next night, and two more the night after that.

Flash forward to July 2021. When Toronto traded Tellez to Milwaukee, the Jansens made the 90-minute drive to Milwaukee to see Tellez’s first game at American Family Field with the Brewers.

“My family couldn’t make it out very often while my mom was sick, so [Jansen’s] family became my family,” Tellez said. “His family kind of adopted me. They are absolutely the best. They are great people. We became really close really quick.

“It was really special to have another player and his family in my corner when I needed it.”

Tellez remembers a time when he and Danny played in A-ball, and Danny’s family was in Danville, Va., to see them play. Tellez, who’d received a big signing bonus in the Draft and could afford it, tried to pay for dinner at a wing joint. Steve Jansen, Danny’s father, grabbed his credit card and flung it clear across the restaurant. Tellez, 6-foot-4 and 255 pounds, had to go crawl on the floor to find it.

Tellez let Steve Jansen pay, but made him promise that when Tellez made it to the Majors, he’d get to pick up the tab. That eventually came to pass, and the group dined at a restaurant better than a wing joint.

“I’ve never had a brother. Danny, he is my brother,” Tellez said. “Watching him smile, watching the way he went about his wedding day, I cried as much as he did. He’s such a good dude, just a genuine person.

“So, when he asked me to officiate, whether they were joking or not, I was like, ‘Yeah, this is going to be fun.”

Tellez wrote a speech with humor, but not too much, and sentimentality, but not too much—mostly because he knew he would be sobbing. He wrote 16 pages, then transferred it all to his iPad because he worried his tears might fall onto the paper and smudge his speech.

“His dad cheated and put sunglasses on right at the start of the wedding,” Tellez said. “I was really hoping to see Steve-O cry. But I had everybody going. I got some laughs in. I bawled my eyes out. I had the time of my life.”

“Rowdy Tellez did an unbelievable job,” Jansen said. “I’ll tell you, that is not an easy task. When I asked him, he was like, ‘Yeah, of course I’ll do it.’ We eloped in 2020 and then we had the ceremony last year. It was a cool thing. That guy put in the preparation and he did an awesome job.”

Jansen requested some dad jokes and Tellez came through, closing with, “By the power vested in me by ‘I’m a minister dot com’ and the $49 I paid ...”

With that, he pronounced Danny and Alexis husband and wife.

“Rowdy had me in tears, and he was in tears,” Danny Jansen said. “He absolutely crushed it.” Tellez looked good, too. He was decked out in a black suit and matching hat.

“I knew he was going to come in looking dapper,” Jansen said. (March 25, 2022 - MLB.com - March 25, 2022)

2022 Season: By the simple law of averages, Danny Jansen should see more of the field in 2023. He had two lengthy periods on the IL last season. First, with a left oblique injury that caused him to miss more than a month, then he suffered a fractured left pinky finger after being hit by a pitch in early June.

Once he returned to the lineup for good, D.J. looked better than he has at any other point in his career an he hit .270 with eight homers and a .833 OPS over the last 53 games. Even more impressive is the Blue Jays record in those games, 37-16.

Overall, Jansen's numbers were also the best he’s ever put up with a .260 average, 15 home runs, and a 141 OPS+ over 72 games. It’s fair to wonder what he can produce with a full season of good health.  (Graeme Wallace - Jan. 17, 2023)

2023 Season: Blue Jays catcher Danny Jansen is coming off one of his best seasons in 2023, but injuries continued to be a thorn in his side. The veteran established career-highs with 17 home runs, 15 doubles, and 53 RBI. He put up those numbers despite missing the last month of the season with a fractured finger.

For weeks, it seemed like Jansen couldn’t get through an at-bat without getting hit on the hand with a pitch. That unfortunate part of the game caused the backstop to miss three weeks in late May. The frequency of getting plunked is due to the stance “Jano” opts for, which exposes his hands.

As has been the case throughout his career, Jansen was a streaky hitter last season. He was slow out of the gate, with just four hits (all singles) in his first 35 ABs, but then heated up with six homers and a .848 OPS over his next 23 games before the first IL stint.

When he returned on June 13, D.J. had a rough night with four strikeouts but rebounded to hit .289 (24-for-83) with eight home runs, five doubles, 13 runs scored, and a .990 OPS over his next 29 games. August saw the 28-year-old start strong with another homer, but then a cold stretch (2/21, 0 XBH) followed.

After all of the unfortunate luck with getting struck in the hand while at bat, it was positioned behind the plate that Jansen suffered a crushing blow. On the first of September, a foul ball fractured his middle digit and ended his season. It’s a shame because Danny was amid another hot streak, with eight hits in his last 24 at-bats.

The Blue Jays starting pitching core four of Kevin Gausman, Jose Berrios, Chris Bassitt, and Yusei Kikuchi were one of the best quartets in the majors in 2023, and Jansen and fellow backstop Alejandro Kirk deserve some credit for that. The ability to handle a staff and call an effective game is a catcher’s primary responsibility, and the now six-year veteran has excelled at those elements.

Jansen recorded two catcher-framing runs and a 47.7% strike rate, both middle-of-the-pack numbers in those categories. He did excel at the zone 14 framing (left-middle corner) with a 69% strike rate, and also had a 53.7% in the high strike zone 12. D.J. provides a clear target for the pitcher without being too obvious about the call. He’ll need to work on framing for the upper-right and middle-right zones. 

With the larger bases and limited pickoff attempts introduced into the MLB rulebook this past season, an increase in stolen bases was expected. Steals and stolen base percentages were up significantly across the majors, and like many catchers, Jansen saw a dip in his caught-stealing numbers, throwing out just eight of 60 base-runners (13%), the lowest of his career. 

When the Jays traded away Gabriel Moreno to the Diamondbacks (insert groan here), they sent a clear message to Jansen and Kirk that they were the guys behind the plate. Most people expected Kirk to be the one to handle the brunt of the catching load, but he regressed while Danny continued to mash. He’ll be entering his final year of arbitration eligibility and will tie Russell Martin for second place on the team’s all-time home run list for catchers (66) with his next big fly. (Graeme Wallace - Oct. 31, 2023)

July 1-4, 2024: Danny was on the paternity list. 

Aug. 26, 2024: Catcher Danny Jansen made history at Fenway Park. Jansen, currently a member of the Boston Red Sox, became the first player ever to play for both teams in the same game when the Red Sox resumed their suspended game against the Toronto Blue Jays. Jansen hit seventh for the Red Sox and caught, going 1 for 4 with a single.

2024 Season: The Sox decided to add catcher Danny Jansen just before the trade deadline, offering them another right-handed hitter down the stretch. Jansen didn’t offer much pop, hitting just .188 with three extra-base hits in 30 games in Boston. Stats: .205/.309/.349, 9 HR, 24 RBI, 61 SO, 40 BB (91 games)

TRANSACTIONS

June 2013: Jansen signed with the Blue Jays for $100,000 after they chose him in the 16th round, out of Appleton High School in Wisconsin. Wes Penick was the scout. 

Jan 13, 2023: Danny and the Jays avoided arbitration agreeing to a one-year deal worth $3.5 million.

Jan 11, 2024: Danny and the Jays avoided arbitration agreeing to a one-year deal worth $5.2 million. 

July 27, 2024: The Blue Jays traded C Danny Jansen to the Red Sox for SS Cutter Coffey, SS Eddinson Paulino and RHP Gilberto Batista. 

Oct 31, 2024: Jansen chose free agency.

Jansen has strong hand-eye coordination and feel for the strike zone. His annual strikeout and walk rates are normally amazingly close. With that great strike zone judgment, you just don't see him chase much. So he works counts to his advantage, getting on base with a walk or a knock a high percentage of the time.

Danny makes consistent contact for line drives and enough pull power for 10-15 homers per season. He uses his compact righthanded stroke to barrel the ball, mostly for line-drives. (Spring, 2019)

Dan produces plus bat speed with a swing oriented to the pull side, but he is learning to use the opposite field. He projects to hit for at least 15 home runs a year with the physical strength and leverage in his righthanded swing.

His bat-to-ball ability and knowledge of the strike zone have produced more walks than strikeouts. 

Jansen has a 45 for his hit tool and a 45 grade for his power—nearly average for a Major Leaguer.

A gym rat whose work ethic endears him to club officials, Jansen knows the strike zone and uses a strength-oriented swing to give him solid-average pull power. He doesn't have a pure feel for hitting but draws walks. (Spring, 2016)

Jansen's injuries have robbed him of some power, but he still has good strength and average power when healthy. (Spring 2017)

Feb 11, 2020: As Jansen worked his way through grading himself using a report from the Major League Scouting Bureau using the 2-to-8 scouting scale, though wary of completely overhauling his mechanics at the plate, he mentioned that all of the hitting descriptors he was circling were going to be different in 2020.

"I know I can hit," he said. "I've always hit, and I've always had different stances where I felt comfortable. Last year I closed my stance off, I got wider, I did a lot of things to make myself really comfortable, but I learned how my body works through the struggle. I want to perfect my stance and my approach. When you're comfortable, you're not thinking about stuff and trying to make an adjustment all the time. It makes it so much easier." (A Brudnicki - MLB.com - Feb 11, 2020)

March 3, 2020: Jansen identified a hole in his swing over the offseason. He was drifting.

Jansen is starting to hit off a tee and is using weighted balls in the cage. This offseason, Jansen hit with Ray Borucki, Ryan Borucki's dad, who played in the Minors with the Phillies and is now an independent hitting coach. Suddenly, Jansen has a foundation to stand on at the plate.

As Jansen demonstrates this, he shows how his body was moving in the direction of the mound as he began his swing, robbing him of valuable power that he could be generating in his lower body.

“You go out of your legs,” Jansen said. “Staying behind the ball is always a key term. I say it’s easier said than done, really. Once you stay behind the ball, you create space. If you drive, then think of a 95-mph fastball. You’re moving towards it like that, it makes it harder to hit. It’s all about staying behind the baseball.”

So far, it’s working. Jansen has launched two home runs to left field this spring, and even his batting-practice rounds come with a little added thump.

Having this routine translate to opening day is one challenge, and sustaining it through May, July and September is another. Jansen is committed to it, though, and he’s not budging.

“Whether I’m riding the highs or lows, I’ve been consistent in all aspects of the routine. So far, I’m sticking to it, and I’m going to stick to it,” Jansen said. “It enables me to be focused and keep the game mentality, even on off-days. It’s been everything for me.” (K Matheson - MLB.com - March 3, 2020)

Dan projects to be an average defender behind the plate with a chance to be slightly above-average because of his receiving skills.

Jansen needs development time to work on his game-calling and pitch-framing, but is adept at blocking balls in the dirt and is a sound receiver.

He gets a big-league-average 50 grade for both his fielding and for his arm.

Jensen draws praise for his ability to handle a staff, blocking and receiving.

“Danny is an old throwback guy who just takes a beating and you never hear a peep out of him,” said Blue Jays catching coordinator Ken Huckaby, Jansen’s manager at Dunedin in 2017.

He has average pure arm strength but needs to quicken his release to allow it to play as average in game action.

Jansen's defensive ability has improved and gives him the potential to remain behind the plate. He is working on his exchange and release, which should enable his fringe-average arm to play up.

Jansen suffered a knee injury late in the season at Rookie-level Bluefield but is expected to be ready for Spring Training in 2015. (Spring 2015)

2015 season: He showed above-average potential as a receiver and blocker, but he must get better at calling games. He has fringe-average arm strength but good enough throwing technique to produce average pop times in the 2.0-second range on throws to second base.

THROWING OUT BASE-STEALERS

In 2015, he caught 29 percent of base-stealers.

In 2017, Danny committed four errors and allowed just four passed balls. And he threw out just 24 percent of base-stealers.

In 2018, he caught only 19 percent of base-thieves. He needs to improve his footwork and release to get rid of the ball faster.

In 2019, Jansen again threw out just 24 percent of runners trying to steal.

He has matured each season behind the plate. His receiving skills have improved—and he's always been very good.

Feb 11, 2020: "I want to win a Gold Glove."

As the end of the 2019 season neared and Danny took some time to think about his first full year in the big leagues, the 24-year-old catcher was not only proud of the ups and downs he endured, but after making significant strides defensively, he offered a proclamation about what he hopes the future holds. When Jansen spoke the words, he was still a month away from learning that he would be among the three AL finalists for the accolade honoring baseball's most elite defenders. He joined Boston's Christian Vázquez and the eventual winner, Cleveland catcher Roberto Pérez.

"I know how it works. You've got to put up offensive numbers as well, and Pérez and Vázquez, those guys are really good backstops, they're good at what they do and had good offensive years as well," Jansen said. "It took me by surprise, but I've put in so much work. That's the one individual thing I want to win. It's such an awesome and prestigious award. When I didn't win, it was still an honor to be there, to be one of the top three. It makes me hungry for this year and for more."

Offensively, Jansen struggled throughout last season, finishing the year with a .207/.279/.360 slash line with 13 home runs, 12 doubles, one triple and 43 RBIs in 107 games. But behind the dish, the Wisconsin native worked with 39 hurlers and learned that he can have an impact beyond his bat.

"I'm proud that I struggled and I got out of it," he said. "I hold myself to a very high standard, but when I wasn't playing well, I was still getting thrown in the lineup and I was able to learn. I've learned so much about myself, knowing I can be here, I can make a difference, I can make an impact, and I can be one of the best catchers in the game. I want to be."

A month before being named a Gold Glove finalist, Danny told me his goal is to win one someday, as he scouted himself (among those at his position) and changed his future arm and fielding grades to show he believes he can become elite.

Jansen wants to improve is his defense, despite the improvements he made in 2019. As he completed the report on himself, the young catcher took it back one final time to make changes on paper where he wants to see them on the field.

"I'm making my arm better," Jansen said. "Fielding, I want to be the best in the game. I'm going to be. Arm accuracy, right now I might be a seven. I'm Top 10 in the league with a lot of that stuff, among catchers, so the grades can probably be better. Seven, I want to be an eight. Arm strength, make it a seven. You can do so much arm strength, but a lot of it is God-given." (A Brudnicki - MLB.com - Feb 11, 2020)

In 2019, his first full season as the club's starting catcher, Danny exceeded all expectations defensively. The Blue Jays wanted Jansen to focus heavily on his defense, given their confidence that he'll hit at the Major League level, and that decision paid off. Jansen ranked 10th in the Majors with seven runs extra strikes, which calculates the runs a catcher saves their team by framing pitches (on a 0.125 run/strike basis).

Beyond the numbers, Jansen also earned widespread praise from his pitching staff, which wasn't an easy task as he managed a revolving door of openers and young starters.  (Matheson - mlb.com - 5/22/2020)

2013: Jansen entered his senior year at Appleton West High in Wisconsin ready to be drafted early when it came time for the June draft. But, in his third game of the season, a foul ball struck him on the wrist and broke his pisiform, a pea-shaped bone where hand meets wrist. A couple of months spent recovering ruined his season and he rushed back to play in a playoff game with a brace on his wrist.

And that changed his draft status.

2014: At Rookie-Level Bluefield, Danny suffered a knee injury late in the season.

May-Aug 2015: Jansen suffered a broken bone his left hand when he was hit by a swing on a catcher's interference play. 

May 5-July 8, 2016: Danny was on the D.L with a broken hamate bone in his left hand.

Jansen strained his right hamstring running the bases during a 6-3 loss to Houston.

July 23-Aug 31, 2021: Danny was on the IL with right hammy strain. When Jansen began hobbling while rounding first base and then pulled up running out a double in the 7-4 loss to the Red Sox, it was clear that he had aggravated the same right hamstring that forced him to miss nearly all of June. 

April 11-May 14, 2022: Danny was on the IL with left oblique strain. Jansen felt some discomfort in the game, and though it didn’t force him out of that one, he’s dealing with a strain that the Blue Jays will treat with caution. Oblique injuries can be one of the more difficult to put a timeline on. 

June 7-July 12, 2022: Jansen was on the IL with a metacarpal fracture—a bone fracture near the pinky finger of his left hand.

May 25-June 13, 2023: Danny was on the IL with left groin strain.

Sept 2-Oct 2, 2023: Danny was on the IL Jansen took a foul tip off his unprotected right hand; tests revealed a fracture to his right middle finger. 

Sept 7, 2023: Jansen had a pin inserted into his finger and is out for the rest of the regular season.  

March 15, 2024:  Danny has a fractured pisiform bone in his right wrist and will miss at least a couple of weeks. The pitch that hit Jansen this time, a 93.4-mph fastball from the Pirates’ Carmen Mlodzinski, struck Jansen on the inside of his right wrist as he started to check his swing. The pisiform bone is very small and sits where the hand meets the wrist underneath the pinky finger.

March 25-April 15, 2024: Danny was on the IL with right wrist fracture.