‘Getting Out of My Own Way’: Jansen’s Offensive Resurgence Coincides With Blue Jays’ Playoff Run

Danny Jansen credits a mental improvement for his recent success. With eight games to go and a playoff berth at stake, the Blue Jays need his bat to stay hot.

When you think of the Blue Jays’ September successes, your mind goes to moments such as Marcus Semien’s walk-off blast to beat the Athletics at Rogers Centre or Vladimir Guerrero Jr. emphatically roasting a ball into the Yankee Stadium bleachers during a four-game sweep in New York.

Yes, the Blue Jays’ big bats often get the glory and make the highlight reels, but Toronto’s lesser-known faces are a decisive reason why the club finds itself in a playoff race to begin with.

Despite normally batting eighth or ninth in the order, catcher Danny Jansen has been one of the Blue Jays’ best hitters of late, which, in a lineup of guys like Bo Bichette, Guerrero Jr. and Semien, is really saying something.

Jansen’s done two stints on the injured list this year and missed 90 games with hamstring issues, but since returning on August 31, he’s playing his best baseball of the season. The 26-year-old is slashing .325/.400/.700 in 40 at-bats with three home runs and nine RBI; Jansen’s 1.100 OPS ranks second on the team during that span, and his 5:6 walk-to-strikeout ratio is excellent, too.

“The biggest difference for me is just kind of getting out of my own way,” Jansen said. “It’s kind of finding out—and starting to figure out—who I am.”

Jansen’s struggled to find consistency after a promising, albeit short, first season with Toronto in 2018. Now, with parts of four seasons under his belt, his thinking has changed. But what does he mean by “getting out of my own way?”

“It's not always physical adjustments that need to be made,” Jansen said. “A lot of times it's just avoiding that. It's knowing that it's not the swing.

“Throughout my career, I've always thought that I had to change some stuff when stuff wasn't going well. That’s not the case. A lot of times it's between the ears, more importantly, so [I’m] starting to realize that and just starting to find myself.”

Baseball is a game that requires not only an enormous level of mental toughness, but also the ability to adapt on the fly. Jansen said that new style of thinking manifests itself in how he gets ready for games.

“The preparation, it's not as much just going to the cage all the time for me anymore,” he said. “It's just taking quality over quantity. I feel like I’ve struggled with that in the past, but throughout the struggle I felt like I've really gotten a lot out of it.”

While no player wants to spend time on the injured list—especially not with a nagging hamstring injury like Jansen’s—but time away from the team gives a player a bit of time to slow things down and reset. Jansen used his time wisely.

“That’s baseball,” Blue Jays manager Charlie Montoyo said. “It's a mental grind. And when you take some time off, it's always good. And that's what [Jansen] did.

“He took some time off, worked on his hitting, gave his brain a break, and now he feels a lot better. He believes he can hit. So that's how it starts.”

“It starts right here,” Montoyo added, pointing to his head.

The Blue Jays are in their final sprint of the season—with eight games left to play, Toronto trails the Yankees by two games for the second AL wild-card spot—so Jansen’s offensive resurgence comes at a time when the club needs all hands on deck.

Bottom-of-the-order production from players like Jansen is a big reason why the Blue Jays have a 16-7 record in September; Toronto’s 7-8-9 hitters have put up a .806 OPS this month, third best in all of baseball during that span.

Playoff teams get contributions from everyone in the lineup, and if Toronto classifies itself as such, depth guys like Jansen will need to keep producing during the most important games of the season.