White Sox right-hander Erik Johnson’s resurgent season at Triple-A has placed the former top prospect firmly on the map for a rotation spot in 2016, GM Rick Hahn tells Colleen Kane of the Chicago Tribune. After a 6.73 ERA in 105 2/3 innings at Triple-A last season, Johnson has turned in a 2.37 mark over 132 2/3 frames with 9.2 K/9 and 2.8 BB/9. As Kane writes, Johnson will be working in relief initially, but he’s likely to make some starts later this month in what could be a preview for the 2016 season.
Here’s more from the AL Central…
- The Twins will not call up top pitching prospect Jose Berrios this season, GM Terry Ryan told reporters, including MLB.com’s Rhett Bollinger. The 21-year-old’s innings total is a concern to the Twins, Ryan explained, especially considering the fact that Berrios is of slighter frame than many pitchers. Berrios ranks as one of the game’s best prospects, including No. 23 on MLB.com’s Top 100, No. 7 per Fangraphs’ Kiley McDaniel, No. 21 per ESPN’s Keith Law and No. 19 per Baseball America.
- The Indians activated right-hander Gavin Floyd from the DL when rosters expanded in September, and manager Terry Francona told reporters, including MLB.com’s Jamie Ross, that Floyd is healthy enough to work out of the bullpen in the season’s final month. Francona said the Indians, however, owe it to Floyd to be careful with his surgically repaired right elbow because “he’s got more career ahead of him.” Floyd signed a one-year, $4MM contract this winter and re-fractured the olecranon bone in his right elbow in Spring Training — an injury that was initially believed to have ended his season. He made his Indians debut today, though, and fired a perfect inning from the ’pen.
- Cleveland.com’s Zack Meisel looks at some of departing Indians president Mark Shapiro’s comments from his press conference announcing his move to Toronto. Meisel breaks down Shapiro’s response to his biggest challenge with Cleveland — Shapiro diplomatically hinted at payroll constraints while noting that market size can’t be used as an excuse for lack of results — as well as Shapiro’s comments on the Michael Bourn/Nick Swisher signings.
Floyd looked solid topping out @ 95. I say bring Floyd back on a 1-year incentive laden contract. Floyd & Cody Anderson could be our 4/5 starters. That would enable Indians to move Carassco for the power RHB we desperately need.
If Floyd is hitting 95 he isn’t going to need to sign an incentive laden deal, someone will guarantee him money and a rotation spot.
I doubt that he has been injured the past 3 years. Plus he’s 34 & very high risk. Can’t see him getting a deal with how deep the FA market is this year for SP. If someone signs Floyd to a multi-year deal odds are he’s on the DL more then on the field.
The going rate for formerly effective pitchers who are now healthy starts at $10 million/season and usually still requires a multi-year deal.
I think that Erik Johnson can replace Samardzija and his bloated ERA in the rotation now.
I like Erik Johnson, but it’s a pipe dream to consider his upside with Samardzija. Sure, Jeff’s been crap this year a lot, but Erik Johnson definitely has back of the rotation stuff. What’s more, he has huge struggles with command at times, which for a guy with good stuff (like Samardzija) means inconsistency but for a guy like Johnson it means he’s probably not going to stick in a rotation, even at the back end, unless he can completely right that ship. Much shorter leash.
Twins fans should be furious about what’s happening with Berrios. He is a stud who is dominating in AAA and needs to be in the majors for September. Especially seeing as the Twins could win or lose the very close WC by a game or two. A strong four or five starts by Berrios similar to the performance that Severino has given the Yankees instead of crappy Nolasco/Santana starts could very well be the difference between the Twins making the playoffs or not if it comes down to a game or two. I’m not sure if it really is an innings cap or if that’s just a veil to delay the start of his service clock, but either way the Twins should have handled this better. Their rotation is very shaky right now and Berrios could help a lot.