The Rays have upgraded behind the plate. Tampa Bay announced they have signed free agent catcher Danny Jansen on a one-year deal with a mutual option for 2026. The contract reportedly guarantees the ISE Baseball client $8.5MM — taking the form of an $8MM salary and a $500K buyout on the $12MM option. Jansen reportedly declined multi-year proposals in order to return to the open market next winter.
Jansen, 29, is a longtime division foe, having spent his entire career to date with the Blue Jays and, briefly this summer, the Red Sox. He’s a rebound candidate looking to bounce back after a down year at the plate in which he slashed just .206/.308/.348 in 328 plate appearances. It was a rough year and a particularly rough finish for Jansen, but heading into the season he looked primed for a notable deal in free agency. From 2021-23, he slashed a combined .237/.317/.487 (121 wRC+) — including a huge .260/.339/.516 showing in 2022.
Any discussion of Jansen’s downturn at the plate should take note of the fact that he opened the season on the injured list due to a fracture in his wrist he suffered during spring training. Jansen raced out of the gate with a .295/.375/.533 slash through his first 120 plate appearances before falling into a prolonged slump from which he never really recovered. Jansen hit just .150/.270/.237 over his final 204 trips to the plate.
(Anecdotally, Jansen also became the first player in MLB history to play for both teams in the same game, starting for the Jays in a rain-suspended game against the Red Sox that was subsequently finished in the second half — after he’d been traded to Boston.)
Jansen still walked at a stout 12.7% clip in that time and fanned in a slightly lower-than-average 21% of his plate appearances. However, his quality of contact went into the tank (85 mph average exit velocity, 24.2% hard-hit rate). Jansen’s .172 average on balls in play during that span of just over 200 plate appearances was surely indicative of some poor fortune, but the lack of quality contact underscores that it wasn’t mere bad luck on its own.
The Rays will hope a healthier Jansen can help them solve a need behind the plate that has persisted for several seasons. Tampa Bay’s catchers last year were predictably among the least-productive in the league — as one would expect when opening the year with journeyman Alex Jackson and a defensive specialist like Ben Rortvedt as the big league catching tandem. By measure of wRC+, the Rays’ catchers were 33% worse than average at the plate. Only the Marlins and White Sox received less-productive output from the position. Tampa Bay catchers combined for a disastrous .194/.272/.291 slash on the season, though Rortvedt’s knack for drawing walks and strong glovework at least made things slightly more palatable.
Even if Jansen simply matches last year’s lackluster output, it’d be an offensive upgrade for the Rays. If he can recapture a portion of his 2021-23 form, it could be a massive improvement to the lineup. Defensively, he’s probably a step down, though there’s reason to hope for improvement in 2025. Jansen has typically rated as a solid but not elite defender. Statcast gave him plus grades for blocking pitches in the dirt and slightly below-average framing marks last year. Jansen has a career 20% caught-stealing rate but sits just over 13% in the past two seasons. However, he’s fractured the middle finger and the wrist in his throwing hand over those two seasons, either of which could have a subsequent impact on his throwing; Jansen’s average 1.99 second pop time is still right in line with where it sat in 2022 (1.98 seconds).
Jansen’s signing should push the Rays’ payroll into the $86MM range. That number could still change dramatically, however, as the Rays have received trade interest in veterans like Jeffrey Springs ($10.5MM in 2024), Yandy Diaz ($10MM), Pete Fairbanks ($3.666MM) and Zack Littell (projected $4.8MM) — among others. It’s not clear just how willing ownership is to spend in the wake of the hurricane damage that ruined Tropicana Field’s roof and forced the Rays to relocate to Tampa’s Steinbrenner Field (home of the Yankees’ Class-A affiliate). The Jansen deal, however, at least signals a willingness to spend modestly, even if the eventual plan is to balance things out by trading other veterans for young, controllable (and cheaper) talent.
Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times first reported the Rays and Jansen were nearing a deal. Ken Rosenthal and Sahadev Sharma of the Athletic reported that it would be a one-year contract. Robert Murray of FanSided reported the $8.5MM guarantee, as well as Jansen’s decision to decline multi-year offers. Topkin was first with the mutual option and salary breakdown.
Thought Cubs would land him, Rickkets being a cheapskate
I wouldn’t be surprised if Garver is part of the Chicago Seattle trade discussions.
I would. Garver has little value.
Garv is the worst catcher
Yeah, Cubs would sooner trade for Monty, best move is to wait. The NY team that misses on Soto might take Belli with Cubs just throwing in 5 mil.
Maybe I’m wrong, but I think it’s going to take a lot more than $5 million.
A team trading for Belli will be taking on $32.5 million for 1 year ($27.5 salary and $5 million buyout) or 2 years at $52.5 million.
It’s probably going to take $10-15 million or taking on a bad contract regardless of Soto contract.
You might be right. If the Cubs have to throw in more than ten million, then I think they should keep Belli.
Garver is pretty much just a dh and not a very good one.
Garver is a strong defensive catcher. He can’t be relied on to play everyday, but he stayed healthy last year. He was also a key part of the Rangers WS just over a year ago.
Also, it would be part of a bad contract exchange where the M’s take back Bellinger. If Garver were a FA, he’d get around $6M, so overpaid by about $6M.
If he’s such a strong defensive catcher, why doesn’t he catch anymore?
No chance. Bellinger’s contract isn’t crippling enough for them to take on dead money for no reason. Garver is a below average catcher who DH’d the majority of his time in Arlington
Not a good acquisition anyway. Injury prone as a catcher.
He’s caught 67 games in last 3 years.
Couldn’t do 8 mil for 1 year on this guy huh Jed…smh
Probably have to go 9 or 10 w an option.
Or promise him the starter job.
They are fools and think Amaya is the starter, so Jansen went somewhere somewhat familiar ( Al east ) to get as many at bats and bounce back n get paid next year.
Jon – Actually both Tim & Steve picked him going to the Cubs. I never did understand why the writers here thought so highly of Jansen, they had him as a Top 30 free agent and projected a $20M contract …. whoops!
He’s not Vazquez-bad, but he has really declined on both sides of the plate the past two seasons.
Jonathan
Agree. Thought Cubs should have offered one year at ten million to get it done. Hope Carson Kelly proves me wrong.
Great signing for them. I have a feeling with their pitching coming back from TJ this year, Rays are going to go back to their pesky shenanigans again. Going to the playoffs with their current stadium dilemma would be the most Rays thing ever done
twozero6ix;
As with the Brewers, the Rays specialize in taking veteran catchers that are on the outs, bringing them in and straightening them out.
Not so sure about that.
Anything is better than what the Rays had last year at catcher. I like this signing as well. Lots of upside if he can stay healthy.
I don’t know I liked Rene Pinto, don’t know why the Rays let him go. Danny Jansen isn’t the answer, might as well let Rortvedt get the starts.
Rays have a ton of pitching, they could easily land Ethan Salas from the Padres. McLanahan would be guy to trade. Would bring them back Salas and DeVries and probably a couple pitching prospects too.
McLanahan has three years of control and is due 3.9M in ’25, first season back from TJ, but the Rays could get a haul for him.
They could empty the Padres entire cupboard. Salas, DeVries, Mayfield and Bateman.
Mets will be in in that, they would probably trade the entire cupboard too: Tidwell, Mauricio, Jonah Tong, Alex Ramirez
I liked Pinto too and I don’t know why they gave him only like three weeks and sent him back down to play Alex Jackson for the rest of the year. Surely whatever red flags they saw in Pinto to send him down so quickly couldn’t compare to Jackson.
Finally good news for the rays if it happens
If this is good news for the rays, I don’t want to know what bad news would be. Ahahahaha!
Well the roof did blow off their stadium, so it isn’t too hard to imagine what bad news looks like for them.
Well, since the Trop is a dump with or without a roof does it really matter? Ahahahaha!
So now you’re understanding why Jansen is good news. That is probably going to be our Juan Soto of the offseason as we prepare to play in a minor league stadium (indefinitely) during the months where the mouth of hell opens up in Florida.
Fair enough, GOAT.
Rays have a few pitching trade pieces to make a trade to help out the roster. As a platoon split with Ben the Rays are smart adding him.
I’d like the Cubs go all in for Carson Kelly. Since Jansen is gone now. Unless Hoyer has something better up his sleeve. Kelly might be a late bloomer.
Good fit. He should do well under strong sabermetric-centric team.
With McClanahan, Springs, Rasmussen and Baz all healthy at some point next year, the Rays could he a threat again
All but Shane pitched in 2024.
Sort of. None of them had anywhere close to a full season.
Who’s replacing him in Toronto?
Probably whoever replaced him after he was traded to Boston mid-season.
Alejandro Kirk?
The round mound of groundout.
@Clofreesz
Probably. Just one problem, Kirk doesn’t have the where-with-all to catch more than 4 days a week so it’ll be Kirk and a AAA/AAAA catcher. I expect there will be minimum power numbers coming from the catching position.
Makes sense, Rays were shopping for catchers, and Danny is familiar with the AL East.
Man, the Rays love catchers who struggle to hit .200, don’t they?!?!?
I know Jansen is a righty, but I’d still rather roll the dice with Rortvedt and Driscoll.
Not many catchers are available that won’t require a multi year deal that are actually worth that.
Agreed. The market for catchers is slim pickins. . .
Jansen’s production does not come from his batting average. He produces with BBs and XBHs.
@Jaysfanssincegz What does he produce? Not RBIs that’s for sure.
What are you talking about? From 2022-2023 He drove in 97 runs in only 483 AB. To put that in perspective olin 2023 Ohtani drove in 95 runs in 497 AB.
Last season the whole offense sucked and there weren’t a whole lot of opportunities to drive anyone.
You’re that guy that has the irrational hate for Jansen aren’t you?
No just state the facts. This is not a love or hate for anybody and if you like Jansen as a player than good on you.
The fact of the matter is in Toronto all we heard was how great Jansen was but when healthy they Jays never won HOWEVER when he would go on the DL they would climb back into the playoff race. They even had a better record than Boston did after the trade.
So how did Kirk have more RBIs than Jansen if nobody was on base and Kirk sat a lot in deference to Jansen (before the trade)?
RBI isn’t a very good tool to argue your point about a players value. RBI is dependent on what the hitter does before you. Terrible baseball players can put up high RBI seasons. I remember one time the angels version of Pujols had around a 100 rbis, was that because he was elite? No of course not. It just means your going to have more opportunities to drive in runs when Ohtani and Trout hit ahead of you.
Ops plus of 114, 142, and 105 before ‘24. Started out hot and then fell off a cliff in ‘24.
Injury bug and average D drove down contract.
First you want RBIs, now you’re making wins a catcher stat.
LOL. Just LOL.
It’s the 21st century. No one cares about batting average and RBI’s.
@Darth
Just tell us you don’t know ball.
I had a conversation with him a while back about this and he tried to claim that Kirk was the better game caller because he had a better catcher’s era. Of course he was completely ignoring the fact that was the season where Alek Manoah had a 2.24 era and Kirk caught nearly every one of his starts.
Apparently in his view the pitcher has no bearing on catcher’s era.
I’m surprised he couldn’t find a longer deal while being the best option in a pretty thin catching market.
Betting on himself to re-enter free agency next season. At 30, he could’ve easily topped Higgy’s two year plus third year option deal.
With TB playing their home games in a minor league park he’s probably betting that he’ll get a boost in his offensive numbers that he can parlay into a better contract next winter.
The Rays value defense and Jansen and Rorverdt are two of the best. If he can help a young staff overachieve a little, he’s primed for a nice deal next winter.
Steinbrenner Field has the same dimensions as Yankee Stadium, except for right, not exactly a minor league field. Little advantage to Jansen there.
He played in a milb park in 2020… didn’t work out so great for him. Likely his worst offensive season.
Sorry jdgoat he was not the best option. I agree the market was VERY thin but he was one of the worst defenders in baseball last year and if not for his blocking ability would most likely be the worst (from regular catchers that is).
As for all the hopla about his hitting ……..Kirk maintained more RBIs than Jansen, throughout the season, while spending a great portion on the bench in deference to Jansen playing AND hitting in RBI spots in the order. Thankfully he is not coming back to the Jays.
Wonder if he’ll join the other AL East teams at some point in his career (only BAL and NYY are the other ones he hasn’t been with now).
Rays are a smart team, and this is smart signing. overall risk limited, good upside, could be traded if necessary–some contending team could always use a catcher.
I finally got one right (other than Nick Martinez) in the free agent predictor. It’s been rough sledding so far.
I believe I had Danny signing with the Cubs. Hoyer is disappointing me but what’s new in Chicago? Both teams are going to disappoint me, just for different reasons…
If Jansen is hoping for a rebound year and he has one, will other teams factor in that he rebounded in a minor league park?
Steinbrenner Field has the same outfield walls dimensions as YS in the Bronx. Not sure about the day/night wind factor though.
29 teams will. Never know what Jerry and Tony will cook up in Chicago.
Really good defensive pairing with Jansen and Rortvedt. While not offensively great it’s a definite improvement over last season
This deal makes sense. The Rays haven’t really had a catcher since Mike Zunino.
What ever happened witb Danny Jansen when he was traded from Toronto to Boston and then the game was suspended for a couple months. He was the batter for the blue jays when the original game happened right? By the time they resumed play he was on the red Sox.
He ended up playing catcher for the Red Sox when that game resumed. . . pretty crazy.
catching himself while batting himself created a disturbance in the space-time continuum, not sure how that was marked on the scorecard (actually Varsho just stepped in)
They started the game at the moment it was suspended so Jansen started the game. Also he was the last batter of the game too!
Also the first hit of the day for the Red Sox
Also if Varsho didn’t hit that day it wouldn’t affect his 22 game hitting streak at the time as everything was reset to June 26th, including for all new players that weren’t even in MLB yet. Their start states were apparently reset to June 26th. (Varsho did have 1 hit)
Vlad’s average day of suspended game was .320 . On June 26th it was .287 and at end of day score-carded to .288
Really thought we dumpster dive with Martin Maldonado, I’ll take it tho I like the signing.
I expected that move, as well. I guess they felt they needed to acquire a catcher before the Winter Meetings., though.. . . especially with the options being so few.
This seems incredibly cheap? Very low risk high reward at least. Would love the Jays to have signed him now they are stuck with…..some AA scrub playing 50 games at catcher.
Given Danny’s injury history, if he re-signed with the Jays, they would of had to replace him for the amount of games he’d miss anyways..
Good price and it’s a team that badly needs a catcher. One of the better offseason signings so far imo. I imagine if the Rays gave him 20 million a year many people would claim they had to because nobody wants to play in a minor league stadium. But turns out they didn’t have to do that.
This makes me HAPPY. Now the Blue Jays won’t make the mistake of trying to resign him.
Higgy wanted multiple years and the Padres didn’t see that as a good idea given the arrival (most likely) of Salas in 2026. So a one year deal for a veteran guy like Jansen would have made sense. Not sure there are too many other similar options out there for C.
Good contract. Solid floor with ceiling potential. Hard to go wrong at 1 year under 10m. That’s nothing in mlb $.
The Rays hope he plays like the 2022-23 Danny J so that they can flip him at the trade deadline for a good prospect. However, I suspect he will be traded regardless of how he plays.
Starting catchers are rarely flipped for obvious reasons.
We are talking about the Rays. They would flip their mothers if it gave them an advantage.
$8.5 mil for a part-time catcher? Very un-Rays. This pretty much guarantees a larger salary is going to be dumped. Diaz, BLowe, Springs? Someone’s going.
Would’ve loved to see a reunion with the Jays but knew it was unlikely. Good signing for Tampa and I think he’ll do well there. Nice to see him stay in the AL East.
Totally unrelated but I feel like the blue jays entire team outlook would be way different if they decided to keep Moreno and capitalize on either Kirk or Jansen at the time of that trade instead.
Yes!!!!!!!! As a Rays fan who has seen us have nobody good at catcher in the history of the franchise, I’m happy with this decision. I feel like barring a trade, Jansen was the best catcher on the market. He has the defense that the Rays stat nerds want, and the hitting (hopefully) that I want. I’m soooooo glad we didn’t end up with someone like Gary Sanchez or some bum about to retire in a season or two.
I liked him for the RS, but only for BUC money. I assumed someone would pay more.
One of Atkins brilliant choices was to keep Janssen . Trade Moreno . Genius at work LMAO
Does anyone know where the rays going to play this season ?
It says in the article.
Oh George M. Steinbrenner Field in Tampa
Good job.
This saved the Mets from the worst overpay so far.
As in Montas.