The Blue Jays have placed catcher Danny Jansen on the 10-day injured list with a right hamstring strain, Shi Davidi of Sportsnet was among those to report. The club called up fellow backstop Riley Adams to take Jansen’s place.
Toronto has gotten little offensive production this year from Jansen, who’s off to a .157/.248/.278 start with three home runs in 122 plate appearances. Reese McGuire has recorded similarly uninspiring numbers, while Alejandro Kirk hit the IL at the beginning of May with a left hip flexor injury. The Blue Jays have nonetheless come out of the gates with a respectable 30-27 record.
Now, the hope for the Jays is that they’ll receive a boost from Adams, a 24-year-old who has held his own against minor league pitching since the team chose him in the third round of the 2017 draft. Adams has slashed .265/.366/.422 with 27 home runs in 1,129 plate appearances in the minors, and he has worked his way to the majors this year with an even better .250/.410/.600 line and six homers over 78 PA in his first Triple-A action. MLB.com ranks Adams 18th in the Jays’ system, lauding his combination of offensive power and defensive ability.
With the amount of cathing talent the Blue Jays have assembled, this is both a blessing and a curse.
Talent has to produce eventually to keep being called talent.
And I misspelled catching. How fitting. Also, I was mostly referring to Moreno and Adams, and not Jansen, but I digress. It doesn’t really matter.
Yankee Steve is a troll. Ignore him. We knew what you meant. If Adams tears it up it’ll create a pleasant problem for the Jays, and perhaps headaches for management.
How about catching potential that the jays have accumulated sound better to you
Sounds fine.
Produce has to keep eventually to be called talented produce.
The BlueJays “abundance of catching” means nothing unless one of them can perform and stay healthy. Lets hope that Adams can do both.
It’s too bad Kirk went down. If he proves he can stick then it really opens up options for the Jays.
Adams is pretty clear trade bait with a productive Kirk in MLB and Moreno destroying AA. With Kirk injured before he could really show enough Adams is someone the Jays should probably hang on to for now.
He would probably be the top catching prospect for half the teams in MLB. There’s value in that.
What a golden opportunity for Adams.
Hopefully he actually gets a chance this time
Happy to see Adams get his chance, but his strikeout rates in the minors are very concerning. Despite his good eye and high OBP, he strikes out over 35% of his ABs in AA & AAA (2019-2021). With a strikeout rate that high and an OBP of .400, his BABIP must be at historic levels. Hope he can keep that up in the majors.
He also has a very high HBP percentage too. He’s been hit 6 times in 83 plate appearances so far this year, and was hit 14 times in 2019. He must crowd the plate; he needs to be careful in the majors with the gas these guys throw. One off the hand or wrist could be devastating.
There’s plenty of examples of high obp and high k rates.
Adams is very interesting. On a team with less pitching in the pipe he might be quite highly thought of. I’m delighted he’s getting a chance to show what he can produce at the show.
It’s funny that the local sports media in Pittsburgh is still crying that the Pirates included McGuire in the deal to dump Liriano. I guess they all bought the BS that the old Pirates front office was shoveling about how great McGuire was going to be. Still can’t hit much after all of these years.
McGuire needs to focus on getting on base and hitting for average, then the power will come. Sometimes he gets pull happy to no avail. If he learns to hit to all fields better like Grichuk has done, McGuire will be a long-term big leaguer, otherwise he is a 4A player.
We’ve all heard what happens when McGuire gets “pull happy”, no thank you.
He is great at beating out groundballs though.
Okay this was fantastic! I will also agree (can’t believe I’m saying this) with Jimmertree. If McGuire can find a way to level his swing out and keep his bat in the zone longer he could be a really good catcher on both sides of the ball. Needs to work on his footwork behind the dish rather than throwing from his knees. Sorry for the long post, really I just wanted to say great post to both of you.
Couldn’t they have had him back for free ?
Adams has been swinging a hot bat after an abysmal start. Let’s hope he carries it at the big league level. Let’s go…
Excited to see Adams, the production he’s replacing from McGuire and Jansen shouldn’t be hard to replace. I don’t know if he’ll be able to hold off Moreno though if he keeps taking like he has.
Perfect situation to walk in to. Literally if he hits .200 he’ll be an upgrade and be able to keep his job
He will not remain in the majors if he is hitting .200.
With a decent on base, good slugging and good defence he absolutely will.
You neglected to mention that. Even then he’s going back to AAA for Kirk come July. He’ll have to hit better than .200 to stay. Much better.
It was a tongue and cheek comment. Seriously why do you try to sound so superior and know it all all the time? It’s unfounded. You’re like mike wilner.