Blue Jays have best kind of problem behind the plate

This story was excerpted from Keegan Matheson’s Blue Jays Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

Catchers in MLB are like quarterbacks in the NFL. There often aren’t enough, and when you have a good one, you hold on tight.

The Blue Jays, then, have the best kind of problem.

Danny Jansen has been reincarnated as a slugger. Alejandro Kirk is hitting everything lately, showing his exceptional contact rate and plate approach. Then there’s Gabriel Moreno, the No. 4 prospect in all of baseball who has every trait necessary to be the next big thing in Toronto.

Few teams in baseball boast this type of depth behind the plate, especially with this youth. Jansen is the veteran of the group, a 2013 draftee out of high school in Wisconsin who’s in his 10th year with the organization and fifth in the big leagues, but he’s still just 27 years old and under team control through the end of the 2024 season.

What’s the solution, then, and what does this position look like one year from now?

Danny Jansen (27)
Jansen made a decision last year. He recognized that his strength was hitting to the pull side, which we saw done at an elite level by Marcus Semien in 2021, and Jansen decided to roll with it.

Sure, hitting the ball to all fields is the ideal, but it’s refreshing to see a player lean into their “thing” and embrace it. For Jansen, it’s worked. He looked excellent at the plate down the stretch last season, then carried that into Spring Training and the early days of the regular season.

An oblique injury sidelined Jansen, but he’s hit six home runs through 14 games, already creeping up on his career high of 13 set back in 2019. The early 1.147 OPS is a stunning development for Jansen, and even if he’s able to maintain that number in the low .800s, that’s an exceptionally valuable catcher.

Add in Jansen’s abilities behind the plate, where he has the full trust of the organization to manage the pitching staff, and you have the total package. There’s a reason that manager Charlie Montoyo has gone out of his way in recent weeks to say that he considers Jansen to be part of the young “core” we speak of so often, right alongside Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Bo Bichette.

Alejandro Kirk (23)
Through 21 games, Kirk didn’t have an extra-base hit and didn’t look like himself. He was still avoiding strikeouts and putting balls in play, which is his bread and butter, but those have finally started to fall in May.

Since his first extra-base hit back on May 3, Kirk is hitting .339 with a .909 OPS and more walks (8) than strikeouts (4) over 20 games. His .371 on-base percentage for the season leads all Blue Jays regulars, too.

Kirk’s offensive profile can be so important to this lineup. If the game is tied with a runner on third and one out, which players would you rather have at the plate to put a ball in play? It’s a very short list.

Jansen’s absence allowed Kirk to run with the starting job for a stretch and he exceeded all expectations defensively. He commanded the lower half of the zone well, earning praise from his pitchers, and looked much quicker behind the plate when it came to blocking balls.

Remember up top, when we talked about the scarcity of starting catching talent in MLB? Other teams will notice this.

Gabriel Moreno (22)
Now hitting .331 down in Triple-A Buffalo, Moreno is holding up his end of things. If Jansen or Kirk were struggling, you’d be experiencing a repeat of the “Call up Vladdy” chants of 2019, but this conversation has been allowed some more patience.

Blue Jays No. 3 prospect Jordan Groshans says that Moreno is like a brother to him after the pair have come up through the system together, each earning their hype along the way.

“He’s a special player,” Groshans said. “I tell people all the time. I don’t know why he’s not in the big leagues right now, but he will be soon enough. He’s going to go up there, be a middle-of-the-lineup guy and take care of business. He’s a heck of an athlete. He does his job at the plate and does it extremely well behind it, too. Having him behind the plate is so nice. It eliminates the run game.”

The solution?
There’s a Trade Deadline coming up on Aug. 2. The Blue Jays have long received calls from around the league about their catchers, and that’s only going to heat up given their performances.

Taking the fantasy baseball approach is easy for fans, of course, but it doesn’t always work out that way. Injuries come, cold streaks always wait around a corner and baseball prospects always offer a harsh lesson that potential is just potential until it’s proven in the big leagues.

There are miles to go, but it would be surprising to see all three catchers with the organization on this day in 2023.