How the Blue Jays Should Manage Catchers Alejandro Kirk and Danny Jansen

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The numbers don’t lie. Alejandro Kirk has been balling in recent weeks. At the time of the episode’s recording (Monday, July 31), Kirk was on a streak of 12-for-25 with an excellent on base percentage. What’s the problem? Kirk isn’t the only solid catcher on the roster with Danny Jansen around.

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How The Blue Jays Manage Alejandro Kirk and Danny Jansen

It can be argued that neither player, Kirk nor Jansen, is significantly better than the other. They’ve shared the workload all season long, with neither player having participated in 80 games at the time of writing (Wednesday, August 2).

How would John Gibbons manage the situation?

“That’s not easy. I’m a huge Danny Jansen fan. I know the team wins with Danny back there. He’s also been one of the more clutch hitters. I know analytics don’t believe in clutch but I guarantee you the guys in the dugout believe in clutch!”

The former Blue Jays coach estimates that the club decides which one plays according to who is pitching on a given night. Another factor is Kirk and Jansen’s framing abilities. In baseball, what is referred to as a catcher’s framing ability is their capacity to get an umpire to call a strike based on how the catcher moves their glove when receiving a pitch.

“It’s a good problem to have! Put it this way. You can put either one of them out there.”