Toronto Blue Jays catcher Danny Jansen will miss at least the next two weeks of action after suffering a fracture of the pisiform bone in his right wrist.
Jansen was struck by a 94mph fastball from RHP Carmen Mlodzinski in the 7th inning of Wednesday’s spring training game against the Pittsburgh Pirates.
Toronto, who open their season on March 28th against the Tampa Bay Rays, can ill afford to have their starting catcher out of the lineup for a prolonged period of time. The Elmhurst, IL native has battled a multitude of hand and wrist related injuries over the last few seasons, failing to log over 100 games since the 2019 campaign.
Over the course of his professional and amateur career, Jansen has fractured his right middle finger, dealt with a strained left oblique, fractured the 5th metacarpal in his left hand, broken the pisiform in his left wrist, and battled hamstring and knee injuries in addition to the latest setback.
While Jays manager John Schneider stressed that the team is confident in backup Alejandro Kirk in the interim, Jansen’s power at the plate will certainly be missed. The 28 year old hit 17 home runs and recorded 53 RBIs in 2023 in only 268 at bats.
“Right now, it seems, unlikely,” Schneider said regarding Jansen’s availability for Opening Day. “But you don’t want to put a definite on it. It’ll depend on how he’s feeling kind of day to day once swelling gets out of there and stuff. And, what the doctor says today.”
“He’ll have to catch and ramp back up and hit and all that kind of stuff,” he added. “With him, obviously a big part of our team, the sooner the better, but we’re not going to rush it.”
His current timeline would have him reevaluated at the start of the season, however given his previous history of injuries, the club may opt for a patient approach to make sure he’s back to 100% health before inserting him back into the lineup.
Former catcher turned outfielder Daulton Varsho isn’t currently being considered as an option behind the plate should Jansen miss an extended period of time. Instead the club will look towards Brian Serven, Payton Henry and max McDowell to seize the opportunity and run with it out of spring training.
“We know he [Varsho] can do that, but we’re comfortable with him in the outfield and he has enough on his plate,” said Schneider. “So, an opportunity for Brian and for Peyton to kind of step up and see what they got…I think the only difference is you start looking at the regular season schedule a little bit — who we’re playing, obviously, but who’s going to be on the mound, what time the games are, where [are] the off days — to try to get him ready to go. But nothing really different now in camp.”
Toronto is next in action against the New York Yankees on Saturday in a 1:05pm ET spring training game.
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