Danny Jansen is back with the Blue Jays, Alejandro Kirk remains in Triple-A

The Blue Jays announced on Saturday that Danny Jansen has been activated from the 10-day Injured List. He’ll be active for tonight’s game against the Rays in Buffalo.

Heading down to Triple-A in his place, as expected, is Riley Adams, who went 3-for-28 with two walks and 12 strikeouts during his 12 games with the Blue Jays.

The big story here, though, is the team’s choice to leave Alejandro Kirk in Triple-A.

Back in spring training, the Blue Jays opted to keep Kirk over Reese McGuire even though it meant putting the more experienced catcher on waivers. Before Kirk got injured, he also seemed to be well on his way to taking over the starting catcher gig as Jansen wasn’t hitting at all.

Since then, McGuire we re-added to the 40-man roster and has been playing fairly well. Since Jansen was placed on the IL back on June 8, McGuire has appeared in 19 games and has slashed a .364/.397/.527 line with six doubles and a homer. He’s obviously going to regress from that level of production, but McGuire’s hot streak has certainly earned him playing time.

Also, he doesn’t have any options left and it’s difficult to see McGuire passing through waivers again.

Charlie Montoyo said earlier this week that the Blue Jays don’t want to roll with three catchers, so it seems the most likely way for this to sort itself out is for somebody to get dealt. If the Blue Jays are going to pull the trigger on a big trade to bring in a high-quality player or a starting pitcher, Kirk is somebody who could be involved. Moving Jansen or McGuire for a reliever would also make some sense, given where the team is at right now.

Personally, I would like to see Kirk and McGuire as the tandem at the big-league level, but the team is very high on Jansen largely due to his work with the pitching staff and his defence. It really isn’t much of a surprise he’s up over Kirk at this stage. Though, if he can’t hit and Kirk mashes in Triple-A, something will have to give.