Danny Jansen status clarified: Catcher will make MLB history by playing for Red Sox, Blue Jays in same game
Catcher Danny Jansen will make history at Fenway Park on Monday afternoon. Jansen, currently a member of the Boston Red Sox, will become the first player to play for both teams in the same game when the Red Sox resume their suspended game against the Toronto Blue Jays. Red Sox manager Alex Cora announced that will happen on Friday.
“Yeah, he’s catching,” Cora said Friday (via the Boston Herald ). “Let’s make history!”
Monday’s game is a restart of a game postponed due to rain in the top of the second inning on June 26. Jansen started the game behind the plate for his old team, the Blue Jays. He was traded to the Red Sox at the deadline and replaced Reese McGuire on the team’s roster. McGuire started the June 26 game behind the plate for the Red Sox.
Obviously, both teams have had lineup changes since June 26, and both teams must replace every player in the original lineup who is no longer with the team. The Red Sox will have to replace McGuire with a new catcher, clearing the way for Jansen to join the lineup and play for both Boston and Toronto in the same game.
“What a weird thing, isn’t it?” Jensen said on Sportsnet’s Blair & Barker podcast earlier this week. “This game is so weird for baseball. People are asking me and coming up to me to talk about it, so it’s going to be a great game.”
It’s not uncommon for games to be postponed. There are a few such cases every season, and many times, players in the original lineup have to be replaced for whatever reason (trade, injury, etc.). However, never before have things worked out in such a way that a player could play for both teams in the same game. At least not until Jensen came on for this game.
Here’s what you need to know about the suspended game and Jansen’s status.
it’s within the rules
To be clear, Jansen playing for both the Blue Jays and the Red Sox in the same game is within the rules. The Red Sox are not going out of the way, nor is this some half-baked idea that sounds good but isn’t actually legal. MLB Rule 7.02(h) covers substitutions for suspended games. Emphasis is mine:
The suspended game shall be resumed at the exact point of suspension of the original game. The completion of the suspended game is a continuation of the original game. The lineup and batting order of the two teams shall be the same as the lineup and batting order at the time of suspension, subject to the rules governing substitutions. Any player may be replaced by a player who was not in the game prior to the suspension. Any player removed prior to the suspension may not be returned to the lineup. A player who was not with the club at the time the game was postponed may be used as a substituteEven if he replaced a player who is no longer at the club, he would not have been eligible to play as he had already been dropped from the squad before the game was postponed.
The rule is clear. Since Jansen was not with the Red Sox when the game was originally postponed on June 26, he can be substituted into the game when play resumes on Monday. It doesn’t matter if he was in the opposing team’s lineup. Jansen playing for both the Blue Jays and Red Sox in this game is completely within the rules.
Jansen is at the plate
It gets even weirder: Jensen was in the batter’s box his first at-bat when the game was suspended. He fouled off Cooter Crawford’s first-pitch cutter, then the umpires asked for a tarp, and play could not resume that day. Here’s the final pitch he threw on June 26:
When play resumes on Monday, the Blue Jays will have a runner on first base with one out in the top of the second inning, and the batter who replaces Jansen in Toronto’s lineup will inherit his 0-1 count.
As is usual in these situations, the Blue Jays and Red Sox will be allowed to use their entire current rosters when suspended play resumes on Monday. Limiting each team to the players they had on the roster that day would be a logistical nightmare, especially with two months off.
Jansen isn’t the only player Toronto needs to replace
The Blue Jays will have to replace more than half of their starting lineup on Monday. They traded several veteran players at the July 30 deadline and four players from their original lineup are no longer in the organization. Add an injury, and five players from the June 26 lineup will not be available on Monday.
The lineup currently involved in the game for the Blue Jays and manager John Schneider is as follows:
- SS Bo Bichette (on injured list with calf strain)
- 2B Spencer Horwitz
- 1B Vladimir Guerrero Jr.
- DH Justin Turner (assigned to the Seattle Mariners at the deadline)
- RF George Springer
- L.F. Davis Schneider
- C Danny Jansen (assigned to Red Sox at the deadline)
- 3B Isiah Kiner-Falefa (assigned to the Pittsburgh Pirates at the deadline)
- CF Kevin Kiermaier (assigned to the Los Angeles Dodgers at the deadline)
Alejandro Kirk or Bryan Serven will replace Jansen behind the plate. Daulton Varsho will likely take over center field and deadline pickup Joey Loperfido could slot in at DH. There should be a combination of Addison Barger, Ernie Clement and Leo Jimenez at shortstop and third base. The point is, Jansen isn’t the only player the Blue Jays have to replace. He’s just one of many.
The Red Sox will also have to make replacements
Not as many as the Blue Jays, but some. Here is the lineup used by Cora and the Red Sox in the original game on June 26:
- CF Jarren Duran
- SS David Hamilton
- RF Wilier Abreu
- 3B Rafael Devers
- L.F. Rob Refsnyder
- DH Masataka Yoshida
- 2B Enmanuel Valdez (currently at Triple-A)
- 1B Dominic Smith (released August 20)
- C Reese McGwire (moved to Triple-A on August 2)
McGuire was outrighted after the trade deadline to clear a roster spot for Jansen — “outright” means McGuire was removed from the 40-man roster — and, in fact, that’s why it’s possible for Jansen to play for both teams in a game. If Boston’s primary catcher Connor Wong had been in the original lineup, he likely would have remained there when play resumed on Monday. No changes would need to be made behind the plate.
But, since McGuire started the original game and is no longer with the big league team, the Red Sox would have to make a change behind the plate. They could add Wong and not give Jansen a chance to make history, but where’s the fun in that?
Has something like this ever happened before?
Again, no player has ever played for both teams in a game, though suspended games have caused plenty of oddities over the years. MLB rule 9.23(d) states that all statistics for a suspended game count on the original date. So, for example, if Devers hits a home run on Monday, it will go into the record books as being hit on June 26.
This has led to some funny situations over the years. Most notably, Juan Soto, who was then with the Washington Nationals, hit a home run against the New York Yankees on June 18, 2018. It was the finale of a game that was suspended on May 15. The home run was hit on May 15, except that Soto was in the Minors at the time. He didn’t make his MLB debut until May 20. The June 18 homer is, officially, his first MLB home run, even though it was actually the sixth home run of his career. Did you get all of this?
Several players have played for two teams in one day without requiring a suspended game, though never for both teams in one game. On May 30, 1922, the Chicago Cubs and St. Louis Cardinals swapped outfielders Max Flack and Cliff Heathcote between games of a doubleheader. Flack played the first game for the Cubs and then the second game against the Cubs as a member of the Cardinals. Heathcote did the opposite. He started the first game for the Cardinals and the second for the Cubs.
Joel Youngblood is the only player in MLB history to have a hit for two teams on the same day. On August 4, 1982, Youngblood started an afternoon game at Wrigley Field for the New York Mets and got a hit in the third inning against Hall of Famer Fergie Jenkins. He was removed from the game one inning later because he had been traded to the Montreal Expos. Youngblood walked out of the stadium, met the Expos in Philadelphia, then entered that night’s game as a pinch-hitter and hit a single against Hall of Famer Steve Carlton. That’s two hits against two Hall of Famers in two different cities on the same day!
Jansen was in the middle of his first at-bat when the June 26 game was suspended and, because he would exit the game with an 0-1 count, MLB rule 9.15(b) states that the at-bat will be credited to the new hitter, regardless of the outcome. Had Jansen exited with a two-strike count, Jansen would have been credited with a strikeout by the new hitter. He needn’t worry about that, though. Regardless of the official scoring, Jansen was in the lineup and the game for Toronto on June 26, and he would enter that same game for the Red Sox on August 26. History is rolling.
