3 reasons Brewers fans should be excited about Danny Jansen

The Milwaukee Brewers boosted their bench by acquiring catcher Danny Jansen from the Tampa Bay Rays in exchange for infield prospect Jadher Areinamo on Monday night. Matt Arnold and the Brewers' front office continue to find value where Brewers fans least expect it, electing to start their 2025 trade deadline with an upgrade at the backup catcher position.

While Jansen may not have been on many fans' radars prior to the Brewers acquiring him two days ago, he offers an intriguing skillset and should help fill a gap that previously existed on the team's roster. Here are three reasons to be excited about Milwaukee's first 2025 trade deadline acquisition.

3 reasons Brewers fans should be excited about recent trade acquisition Danny Jansen

1. Jansen adds some much-needed power to the Brewers' bench

Jansen has appeared in just 73 games this season, and even still, his 11 HR are the fourth most on the Brewers' roster behind Christian Yelich, Jackson Chourio, and Rhys Hoskins. But Jansen's power in 2025 is nothing new. From 2021-2023, despite playing in less than half of his team's games, Jansen averaged more than 14 HR per season.

It's almost exclusively pull-side power for Jansen, whose underlying metrics don't align with the output that he has produced this season. Despite having double-digit home runs, Jansen ranks in the bottom quartile in expected slugging percentage and average exit velocity. However, his 36.1% launch angle sweet spot rate, which ranks in the 68th percentile, suggests that Jansen frequently hits the ball at the perfect trajectory, which is a big reason for his 11 long balls this year.

Though his underlying metrics are down a bit this season, Jansen's ceiling, which came for the Toronto Blue Jays back in 2022, tells a different story; he ranked in the upper quartile in nearly every power metric. He's never been a high batting average player, but in Jansen, the Brewers are sure to get a few homers down the stretch.

2. Jansen has excellent plate discipline

When Jansen isn't hitting home runs, he does an excellent job of making contact and drawing walks. His walk rate has consistently been above the league average (which is about 8%), and in the last two years, he's reached near elite status with a rate north of 12%.

In general, Jansen pairs his excellent walk rate with a low strikeout rate. He's often been around the 20% league average mark, but consistently dipped below that during his nine-year MLB career. However, this season, Jansen is striking out a bit more than he has throughout his career, with a 26.4% K rate to prove it. Even with an elevated strikeout rate this season, Jansen hardly ever chases pitches out of the zone. His 19.7% chase rate ranks in the 92nd percentile, according to Baseball Savant.

Additionally, when it comes to strikeouts and walks, Jansen is hitting his stride over the last week. He's drawn eight walks and struck out as many times in his last seven games, resulting in an OBP of .423 over the last week. With two homers and a slugging percentage of .500 over that stretch, Jansen has an OPS of .923 over his last seven games, suggesting that the Brewers are acquiring him at the right time.

3. Jansen is an Appleton native

One final reason to be excited about Jansen is that he's a Wisconsinite. Jansen grew up in Appleton and attended Appleton West HS before being drafted in the 16th round by the Toronto Blue Jays in 2013.

Prior to Tuesday night's game against the Chicago Cubs, Jansen sat down with Brewers reporters and talked about his upbringing. Take a look at this video captured by Curt Hogg of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

Jansen talked about his sports fandom, and he was careful not to come right out and say he was a Cubs fan growing up, but rather that his family supported the Chicago teams, leaving Brewers fans to hope that he was talking about the Chicago White Sox, but that's besides the point. Jansen also talks about being a big Wisconsin Timber Rattlers fan growing up and mentioning that his family used to have T-Rats players stay with them during the season.

With Appleton less than a couple of hours from American Family Field, Jansen should have plenty of fans in the stands every time he takes to the field in a Brewers' home game. That support and the added excitement that Jansen is playing for his hometown team could make the Danny Jansen experience in Milwaukee even better.