By Ken Rosenthal, Sahadev Sharma and Chris Strauss
The Tampa Bay Rays have agreed to a one-year deal with free-agent catcher Danny Jansen, addressing an offseason need for the team ahead of the Winter Meetings next week, according to league sources. The Tampa Bay Times reports that Jansen will receive $8.5 million in 2025, with a mutual option for the 2026 season.
The 29-year-old Jansen spent the first six and a half seasons of his MLB career with the Toronto Blue Jays before a July trade to the Boston Red Sox, where he’d finish the 2024 season with a combined .205/.309/.349 stat line. He recorded nine home runs and 24 RBIs in 92 games. Yet Jansen’s biggest moment in 2024 had little to do with his performance, as he made MLB history on Aug. 26 when he became the first player to play for both teams in the same game.
Jansen was a member of the Blue Jays on June 26, when a game between Toronto and Boston was suspended due to weather. When it resumed two months later, he ended up in the lineup for the Red Sox. Jansen noted to The Athletic’s Jayson Stark just how unique the scenario was when he spoke to him earlier this summer ahead of the resumed game.
“I didn’t know (much about this) at first,” Jansen said at the time. “I was like, ‘What — am I going to have to go on the other team?’ I didn’t know what was going to happen. It just kind of caught me off guard about the whole situation. Because when I got traded, it was just a whirlwind at first, and I didn’t think about it. But then, once that stuff settled, I heard about (the suspended-game scenario). And I was like, ‘Oh, that’s cool. That’s a unique thing that’s going to happen.’”
Jansen, who now joins his third AL East team, won’t likely have anything quite so unique happen again in his career. But he will fill a need — as noted by The Athletic’s Jim Bowden — for a Rays team looking to shore up the catching position.
“Although this free-agent class isn’t loaded at catcher, Jansen seems like a solid fit for them,” Bowden wrote. “He’s a good defensive catcher who calls an excellent game and would help the Rays’ many young pitchers. Jansen’s best defensive trait is his blocking as he tops the majors in blocks above average, according to Statcast.”
(Top photo of Danny Jansen: Maddie Meyer / Getty Images)
