A change of scenery was all it took for Danny Jansen to get a shot at the record books.
How on brand is that for this uninspiring Blue Jays season?
The former Toronto catcher, now a member of the Boston Red Sox after being traded last month for a trio of prospects, could make history on Monday at Fenway Park when the two teams complete a game that was suspended due to rain earlier this summer.
If Jansen gets into the game with the Sox, he would be the first MLB player to end up on a boxscore as playing for both teams. He was the starting catcher for the Blue Jays on June 26 and was due to bat next before the game was stopped in the second inning.
That means the Jays will have to pinch-hit for Jansen when the game resumes Monday at 2:05 p.m. with the score deadlocked at 0-0.
“Oh, man,” Jansen told The Athletic. “It’s going to be nuts.”
Complicating matters even more is that the Red Sox will need to pencil in a new catcher of their own after optioning Reese McGuire, another former Blue Jay, to triple-A after acquiring Jansen on July 27 for minor-league pitcher Gilberto Batista and infielders Cutter Coffey and Eddinson Paulino.
McGuire was the starting Red Sox catcher on June 26, but had not yet taken an at-bat.
This is all thanks in part to MLB’s unique suspended game rule, which allows players who were not with the club when the game was suspended to be used as a substitute, the New York Post reported.
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Jansen, meanwhile, was reportedly caught off-guard about his shot at entering the MLB record books.
“I didn’t know (much about this) at first,” he told The Athletic. “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 has settled in nicely with the Red Sox, batting .281 with two homers, five RBIs and an .830 OPS in 12 games with the AL wild card-contenders heading into Tuesday’s action.