Blue Jays place Danny Jansen on the 10-day IL, recall Tyler Heineman

Baltimore Orioles v Toronto Blue Jays
Baltimore Orioles v Toronto Blue Jays | Vaughn Ridley/GettyImages

It's official, the Toronto Blue Jays are officially placing catcher Danny Jansen on the 10-day injured list with a left groin strain (retroactive to May 25) and recalling Tyler Heineman from Triple-A Buffalo.

This move seemed likely ever since Jansen had to prematurely leave Wednesday night's game against the Rays in the fifth inning. He did not make an appearance in Thursday's contest either, putting outfielder Daulton Varsho in the backup/emergency catcher role for a day. Heineman had been up with the big league club on the taxi squad as a "just in case" type of precaution and will now be formally promoted.

For Jansen, this move presses pause on what had just started to be a very nice stretch of hitting in recent games. In his last 10 games, he has registered 11 hits, including a massive walk-off home run against the Yankees last week. He has been functioning in a 50-50 split behind the plate with Alejandro Kirk this year and was only just beginning to establish himself as the better hitting option of the pair.

On the season, the 28-year-old Jansen has six home runs, 26 RBI, 16 runs scored, a .207 average and an OPS+ of 91, nine percent below league-average.

For Heineman, this promotion will lead to his second consecutive season with time spent on the Blue Jays' active roster. The 32-year-old has never had much of a bat, especially at the big league level (one home run in 85 career games) and had only been hitting .219 for Buffalo before being recalled. However, he is known to be an excellent game-caller and is certainly more of a glove-first type of player. Having someone like him to balance out Kirk's offense-only profile will be refreshing for the Blue Jays.

Jansen's injury appears to be on the low end of the concern meter, so he should be back with the club in around 10 days if all goes well in the healing process. In the meantime, the Blue Jays could do a whole lot worse than Heineman as a backup to Kirk.

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