Danny Jansen situation explained: Catcher to make MLB history by playing for Red Sox, Blue Jays in same game

Catcher Danny Jansen will make history Monday afternoon at Fenway Park. Jansen, currently a member of the Boston Red Sox, will become the first player ever to play for both teams in the same game when the Red Sox resume their suspended game against the Toronto Blue Jays. Jansen is hitting seventh for the Red Sox and catching.

“Yeah, he’s catching,” Red Sox manager Alex Cora said Friday (via Boston Herald). “Let’s make history!”

Monday’s game (slated to resume at 2:05 p.m. ET) is the resumption of the June 26 game suspended due to rain in the top of the second inning. Jansen started the game behind the plate for the Blue Jays, his longtime team. 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.

Both rosters have changed since June 26, obviously, and both teams will have to replace every player in the original lineup who is no longer with the team. The Red Sox have to substitute a new catcher in for McGuire, paving the way for Jansen to step into the lineup and play for both Boston and Toronto in the same game.

“What an oddity, right?” Jansen said on Sportsnet’s Blair & Barker podcast last week. “What a crazy, crazy thing for baseball this game. People have been asking me and coming up to me to talk about it and stuff, so it’s going to be a cool one.” 

Suspended games aren’t uncommon. There are a handful every season, and oftentimes, players in the original lineups have to be replaced for whatever reason (trade, injury, etc.). Never before have things aligned in such a way that one player could play for both teams in the same game, though. At least not until Jansen with this game.

Here’s what you need to know about the suspended game and Jansen’s situation.

This is within the rules

To be clear, Jansen playing for both the Blue Jays and Red Sox in the same game is within the rules. The Red Sox aren’t stepping outside the rules nor is this some half-baked idea that sounds cool but isn’t actually legal. MLB Rule 7.02(h) covers substitutions for suspended games. Emphasis mine: 

A suspended game shall be resumed at the exact point of suspension of the original game. The completion of a suspended game is a continuation of the original game. The lineup and batting order of both teams shall be exactly the same as the lineup and batting order at the moment of suspension, subject to the rules governing substitution. Any player may be replaced by a player who had not been in the game prior to the suspension. No player removed before the suspension may be returned to the lineup. A player who was not with the Club when the game was suspended may be used as a substitute, even if he has taken the place of a player no longer with the Club who would not have been eligible because he had been removed from the lineup before the game was suspended.

The rule is clear. Because Jansen was not with the Red Sox when the game was originally suspended on June 26, he is eligible to be substituted into the game when it resumes Monday. It does not matter that he was in the opposing team’s lineup. Jansen playing for both the Blue Jays and Red Sox in this game is completely by the book.

Jansen is at the plate

It gets weirder: Jansen was in the batter’s box taking his first at-bat of the day when the game was suspended. He fouled away a Kutter Crawford first pitch cutter, then the umpires called for the tarp, and the game was unable to be resumed that day. Here is the final pitch that was thrown on June 26:

When the game resumes Monday, the Blue Jays will have a runner at 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 always the case in these situations, the Blue Jays and Red Sox will be allowed to use their entire current roster when the suspended game resumes Monday. Limiting each team to the players they had on the roster the day the game was suspended would be a logistical nightmare, especially with a two-month layoff.

Jansen isn’t the only player Toronto has to replace

The Blue Jays will have to substitute more than half their starting lineup come Monday. They traded away several veterans at the July 30 deadline and four players from their original lineup are no longer in the organization. Add in an injury, and five players from that June 26 lineup will be unavailable Monday.

Here is the lineup that is currently in the game for the Blue Jays and manager John Schneider:

1. SS Bo Bichette (on injured list with calf strain)
2. 2B Spencer Horwitz
3. 1B Vladimir Guerrero Jr.
4. DH Justin Turner (traded to Seattle Mariners at the deadline)
5. RF George Springer
6. LF Davis Schneider
7. C Danny Jansen (traded to Red Sox at the deadline)
8. 3B Isiah Kiner-Falefa (traded to Pittsburgh Pirates at the deadline)
9. CF Kevin Kiermaier (traded to Los Angeles Dodgers at the deadline)

Either Alejandro Kirk or Brian Serven will replace Jansen behind the plate. Daulton Varsho will presumably take over in center field and deadline pickup Joey Loperfido could slot in at DH. Shortstop and third base figures to be some combination of Addison Barger, Ernie Clement, and Leo Jiménez. Point is, Jansen isn’t the only player the Blue Jays have to replace. He’s one of many.

The Red Sox have to make substitutions, too

Not as many as the Blue Jays, but a few. Here is the lineup Cora and the Red Sox used in the original game on June 26:

1. CF Jarren Duran
2. SS David Hamilton
3. RF WIlyer Abreu
4. 3B Rafael Devers
5. LF Rob Refsnyder
6. DH Masataka Yoshida
7. 2B Enmanuel Valdez (currently in Triple-A)
8. 1B Dominic Smith (released on Aug. 20)
9. C Reese McGuire (outrighted to Triple-A on Aug. 2)

McGuire was dropped to clear a roster spot for Jansen after the trade deadline — “outrighted” means McGuire was removed from the 40-man roster — and, really, that is the reason Jansen playing for both teams in one game is possible. If Connor Wong, Boston’s primary catcher, was in the original lineup, then he likely would have stayed in when the game resumes Monday. There would be no need to make a change behind the plate.

But, since McGuire started the original game and is no longer with the big league team, the Red Sox do have to make a change behind the plate. They could have slotted in Wong and not allowed Jansen to make history, but where’s the fun in that?

Has anything like this ever happened before?

Again, no player has ever played for both teams in one game, though suspended games have led to plenty of quirkiness over the years. MLB Rule 9.23(d) says any and all stats from a suspended game count on the original date. So, for example, if Devers hits a home run Monday, it will go into the record book as being hit on June 26.

This has led to some funny situations over the years. Most notably, Juan Soto, then with the Washington Nationals, hit a home run against the New York Yankees on June 18, 2018. That was the completion of a game that was suspended on May 15. The home run went into the record books as being hit on May 15, except 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 the really sixth home run of his career. Got all that?

Several players have played for two teams in one day without needing a suspended game, though never for both team 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 game for the Cubs.

Joel Youngblood is the only player in MLB history to get a hit for two teams on the same day. On Aug. 4, 1982, Youngblood started an afternoon game for the New York Mets at Wrigley Field and got a hit in the third inning against Hall of Famer Fergie Jenkins. An inning later he was removed from the game because he had been traded to the Montreal Expos. Youngblood left the stadium, met the Expos in Philadelphia, then entered that night’s game as a pinch-hitter and singled against Hall of Famer Steve Carlton. Two hits against two Hall of Famers in two different cities in one day!

Jansen was in the middle of his first at-bat when the June 26 game was suspended and, because he’ll exit the game with an 0-1 count, MLB Rule 9.15(b) says the result of the at-bat will be credited to the new hitter regardless of outcome. Had Jansen exited with a two-strike count, a strikeout by the new hitter would have been charged to Jansen. He doesn’t have to worry about that though. Regardless of the official scoring, Jansen was in the lineup and in the game for Toronto on June 26, and he will enter the same game for the Red Sox on Aug. 26. History is afoot.