Jansen was once an excellent two-way catcher (part-time) for the Blue Jays, but he fell off a cliff after May of last year, so he’s probably trying to rebuild his value. Most of us hoped the Cubs would enter into such rebuilding talks (no pun intended).

The free agent market, which was thin to begin with, is now more or less thanks to Carson Kelly, and as far as catching options go, you’d actually be happy to get a sign from the Cubs. According to rumors, they, along with Jansen, were linked to him. So maybe this is a precursor to that?

Or, as I said when the Cubs grabbed Matt Thaiss, it’s still possible they view him as an acceptable (cheap) caddie for Miguel Amaya.

The other route would be a trade, which is harder to predict in terms of player availability. More soon.

UPDATE: A very sensible deal for Jansen:

I have to wonder if the Cubs were one of those multi-year offers trying to get Jansen in the two-year $12-13 million range, which is where Kyle Higashioka ended up (which would have been a steal). It’s hard to blame Jansen for preferring this route.

What I would like to add: Isn’t this an attractive deal for the Cubs? Shouldn’t they have been right there and offered it, or something more? Do they already have another plan for Catcher, who is about to go under? It’s confusing. Worrying, possibly.

What’s notable, by the way, is that Cubs beat writer Sahadev Sharma was involved in the reporting here along with Ken Rosenthal. This perhaps suggests that the Cubs were involved but couldn’t get a deal done.

UPDATE 2: The Cubs were actually involved: