Blue Jays Place Danny Jansen On IL, Recall Riley Adams
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.
Blue Jays Notes: Jansen, Springer, Biggio, Hatch, Borucki
Catcher Danny Jansen suffered a right hamstring strain that forced him out of Sunday’s 6-3 Blue Jays loss to the Astros. Jansen was hurt running the bases trying to beat out a fielder’s choice in the third inning, and Reese McGuire took over at catcher for the top of the fourth. Jays manager Charlie Montoyo told MLB.com’s Keegan Matheson and other reporters that Jansen would receive tests both yesterday and today to determine the extent of the strain.
With Alejandro Kirk already on the 60-day injured list, losing Jansen to the IL would leave Toronto with a catching depth chart of McGuire and (in all likelihood) Riley Adams, who is hitting .250/.410/.600 over 78 plate appearances at Triple-A this season. Adams had never played at the Triple-A level prior to this season, and he doesn’t officially have any big league experience — the Blue Jays called Adams up for a three-day cup of coffee on the active roster in early May, though Adams didn’t appear in any games. While McGuire is the more experienced option, his struggles at the plate over the last two seasons would perhaps mean that McGuire and Adams would be deployed in a platoon, as the youngster’s Triple-A production certainly seems to warrant a look against Major League pitching.
More from the Jays…
- George Springer is making “extremely encouraging” progress in his recovery from a quad strain, GM Ross Atkins told reporters (including Matheson, TSN’s Scott Mitchell and Sportsnet’s Arden Zwelling) as part of a series of updates on injured Blue Jays players. Springer has been performing running drills over the last two days, and Atkins implied that the outfielder is “very close” to heading out on a minor league rehab assignment. This is Springer’s second quad injury of the season, and combined with those injuries and an oblique issue, the prized free agent signing has appeared in only four games in 2021.
- Speaking of rehab assignments, Cavan Biggio began his assignment at Triple-A yesterday. A cervical spine ligament sprain sent Biggio to the 10-day IL on May 22, but it looks like he’ll be able to rejoin the Jays sometime this week. The injury absence has underlined an overall tough season for Biggio, who has a -0.3 fWAR through 39 games and 151 PA due to a lack of hitting (.205/.315/.315) and some defensive struggles as Toronto’s regular third baseman.
- Thomas Hatch threw two scoreless innings for Triple-A Buffalo yesterday, as the right-hander resumed a rehab assignment after missing two weeks with what Atkins described as “mild tightness in his side.” Hatch is working his way back from an elbow impingement suffered during Spring Training that has kept the righty out of any Major League action this season. Hatch worked 16 of 17 games as a reliever in his 2020 rookie season, but Atkins said the team is still planning to build Hatch up as a starter.
- Ryan Borucki is on the verge of beginning a throwing program, and is no longer feeling any pain in his forearm. A left flexor strain went Borucki to the injured list in mid-May, representing yet another injury setback for a southpaw who missed most of the 2019 due to elbow issues.
Blue Jays Add 5 Players To 40-Man Roster
The Blue Jays announced Friday that they’ve selected the contracts of catchers Riley Adams and Gabriel Moreno, right-hander Ty Tice, outfielder Josh Palacios and infielder Otto Lopez. All five are now protected from being selected in next month’s Rule 5 Draft. Toronto’s 40-man roster is now full.
Adams, 23, adds another catching option to a roster already well stocked at that position. He topped out with a solid Double-A showing in 2019 and ostensibly isn’t too far from MLB readiness. The 20-year-old Moreno, on the other hand, hasn’t played above A-ball, although he hit quite well there in ’19.
Tice, 25, logged a 2.34 ERA between Double-A and Triple-A in ’19 and racked up better than 11 K/9 but did so while walking nearly six per nine frames. Palacios plays all three outfield spots and is an OBP-over-power option who has seen some time in Double-A. Lopez, 22, hasn’t advanced beyond A-ball. He hit well there in 2019 and has experience at both middle infield spots and both corner outfield positions.