It’s always a little bit awkward taking on your former team for the first time, but for Boston Red Sox catcher Danny Jansen, it’s going to be downright weird.
The ex-Toronto Blue Jays catcher is scheduled to face his old team on Monday as a member of the Red Sox, in the resumption of a suspended game that he played in as a Blue Jay.
Yes, you read that right.
Jansen can make MLB history as the first player to appear on the boxscore for both teams in the same game, and all he has to do is step on the field.
The 29-year-old catcher, who was traded from the Blue Jays to the Red Sox for three prospects on July 27, joined Sportsnet’s Blair & Barker on Thursday to talk about his chance to be immortalized in baseball lore.
“What an oddity, right,” Jansen said to Sportsnet’s Jeff Blair. “What a crazy, crazy thing for baseball this game. People have been asking me, and coming up to me to talk about it and stuff, so it’s going to be a cool one.”
Red Sox manager Alex Cora confirmed that Jansen is in line to make the start on Monday. However, since joining Boston, he has split time behind the plate with Connor Wong.
Jansen told Blair & Barker that he hasn’t mentioned anything to Boston manager Alex Cora about the situation, but former Red Sox legend and their current game planning coordinator, Jason Varitek, was maybe going to put in a good word.
“I think Jason had said he was going to talk to (Cora),” Jansen said. “I haven’t talked to (Cora) about it. I’m always just, whenever my name is in the lineup I’ll be ready and prepared.”
Not that this story needed any more juice, but what makes it even more fascinating, is that Jansen is technically frozen in time in the batter’s box, albeit as a member of the Blue Jays.
The June 26 matchup between the Blue Jays and Red Sox was suspended in the top of the second inning after Jansen fouled off a pitch from Boston’s Kutter Crawford.
Therefore, the Blue Jays will need to pinch-hit for Jansen as the game resumes. The Red Sox will also need a new man behind the plate as Resse McGuire, who was catching at the time, is currently with Boston’s triple-A team. McGuire also is a former Blue Jay.
Funny how things work out. All signs point to a wild and wacky Monday afternoon in Boston as the teams kick off a doubleheader.
This is all possible because MLB’s rules allow a player who was not on a team’s roster when a game was suspended to be used as a substitute when the contest resumes at a later date.
Jansen may become the first MLB player to do this, but he won’t be the first baseball player.
Thanks to some deep digging from Jayson Stark of The Atheltic, we know that Dale Holman was the first to play for two different teams in the same game when he did so in the International Baseball League back in 1986.
Holman started a game with Syracuse in June, then played for Richmond when the game resumed in August.
“It’s just one of those crazy things,” Holman told Stark. “It could have happened to anybody, but it happened to me. I was in the wrong place at the right time, or whatever.”
Holman ended up with a hit for both teams in the game, so he’ll still have that as Jansen was still in his first at-bat of the game before it was postponed.
Since joining the Red Sox, Jansen has appeared in 13 games for Boston and is slashing .257/.366/.429 with two home runs and five RBIs. The Red Sox are currently in the thick of the American League wild-card race, and head into Thursday’s action just 3.5 games back of the final spot.
Jansen spent the first six seasons of his career with the Blue Jays before being traded in the middle of his seventh. He told Blair & Barker that he was a little bit “shocked,” but also understands that it’s a business as he was in the final year of his deal.
And hey, at least the trade could lead to his name in the history books.
You can watch what is sure to be an interesting afternoon live on Sportsnet and Sportsnet+ at 2:05 p.m. ET / 11:05 a.m. PT on Monday.