The Red Sox have released lefty Brian Johnson, according to Christopher Smith of MassLive.com (via Twitter). He did not have a place on the team’s 40-man roster but was in the 60-man player pool.
Johnson, 29, was a useful swingman for the Boston club back in 2018. He threw 99 1/3 frames that year, working to a 4.17 ERA with 7.9 K/9 and 3.4 BB/9. Things turned south last year, however, as Johnson saw his walk rate (5.1 BB/9) and ERA (6.02) skyrocket.
It sounds as if the decision was driven by Johnson himself. Though the organization has been scrambling a bit for innings, he hasn’t drawn another chance. It seems the southpaw will now go out looking for a new opportunity with another organization.
really not hiding how much they are trying to lose
Guy sucks
the standard is pretty low for the Red Sox right now
More than Ryan Weber?
Johnson had his shot or actually multiple shots. It just didn’t work out in Boston. He however acted professionally to my recollection and hopefully will turn things around somewhere else.
If he was already on the 40 man he would have been pitching in Boston weeks ago.
He gives you more innings and gives up less runs than 75% of the pitchers Boston has used so far this year.
If he was good enough to be on the 40 man roster he would have been…….he was good enough in 2018, but no longer is….
Walks spiked in 2019, otherwise he’s pretty much been a back end level guy all along. Even with all those walks FIP had him around .8 era better than he put up.
Granted, a 4.5 era pitcher isn’t great, but, there’s a couple gaping holes in the rotation without anyone proven to fill them so…
his spring numbers were much better then most of the guys they’ve plugged in there
Again as I said with Rusney Castillo, with this guy.. they already know what they have. They’ve had him for 12 years. Why not try to find a guy from somewhere else that they can perhaps find a flaw in his delivery or something and turn the guy around. And it works both ways, maybe someone else, another pitching coach can work with Brian Johnson and turn him into a effective starting pitcher. This is almost a gift to him… “give it a shot somewhere else buddy. Good luck to you.”
This is slightly different than Rusney…
Even if you got a lottery ticket prospect back at the deadline, that would be better than paying Rusney to just sit on the sidelines unused and letting him walk with no return on that spent money. But you can’t get that by playing JBJ every day. Use JBJ as a defensive upgrade and see if Rusney can help spark the bats. He fails? Ok. But you can’t win without trying.
I guess the problem with Johnson is several fold, but different, IMO.
1) this move fits if completely punting the season. It’s not like you’ve got a solid 1-4 and need somewhere else to evaluate the next young arm. The entire rotation is shot and there’s nothing but room to audition.
2) you could non-tender him in the offseason, IF you find enough FA pitching to need his roster spot. Otherwise, you’ve got even less to work with in an organization not known for having a pipeline of arms. Keep him till ST, see if you can work on that walk rate down, and you’ve got years of control remaining on a back end affordable guy.
3) I’m not seeing a plethora of other guys worth bringing in waiting in the wings either. Again, you already have lots of holes in the rotation.
You are correct, you know roughly what you have with Johnson. A piece of 4.5era stability if you reign the walks back in that hurt in 2019m
In general, punting on the season seems a mistake in the expanded playoff year. If eovaldi keeps thing up for 6 weeks, and Perez holds things together, you’ve got 2/3 of the 3 guys you really need in a playoff series.
Given the 3 game 1st round, and 5 game second, you may see many ‘powerhouse’ teams knocked out early by teams without a deep rotation before you get to a 7 game alcs.
Just depends on whether you want to win.
As an aside, NO “LOOK” you get at anyone else you bring in now will have any greater reliability than looking at the same guy next spring – in fact, probably less so since you’d have more games then.
The problem with Rusney is no team wants to pay him even the prorated amount left for this year. If the Sox are still under the tax number in September maybe they’ll give him a Hail Mary shot with nothing to lose.
But the counterpoint looie is that the Sox pay him either way.
Option 1: Pay Castillo the remainder of 2020 prorated salary to play for someone else and get… something back. If he can audition 3 weeks and look to have value, that return may exceed a lottery pick although it certainly won’t be anything elite. But I’m sure someone gives up at least some a ball lottery piece or two for a free rusney castillo…
Option 2: Pay Castillo the remainder of 2020 prorated salary to do…. nothing. After the season he walks.
Either way he gets paid. The question is whether you want a something to stick in the minors beyond 2020 out of it, or have nothing to show for the money?
How much under the tax presently is the team AtlSox? I still say instead of giving him a showcase, the team will save that money and see what happens the next three weeks. Their what 2 games out of a spot? They could be a buyer at the end of the month. Unlikely but possible.
Right now Castillo is not on the 40-man roster, and so his salary doesn’t count toward the luxury tax (the rules were changed after Castillo’s contract, specifically to prevent teams from doing what the Sox did with Rusney).
If he’s traded to another team and they put him on the 40-man, then any part of his salary the Sox are paying gets added to their luxury tax bill. So to trade him, they need to dump his salary too, or else they’re eating the tax on top of the salary.
Gary, 100 percent correct as usual !!
Except for the fact that this is probably the worst pitcher on their roster simply because he’s been terrible for so long. Best move all season long, addition by subtraction.
Man, who’s going to replace him as lead singer?
Bronson Arroyo.
He’s only 43 and wants to train with Bartolo.
They’d like to sign as a tandem duo and figure they can’t be worse than some innings eaters thus far.
They would like to set a record for the oldest SP and CP to bookend a single game.
AtlSoxFan- I think there’s a better chance of Charles Bronson making a comeback then Bronson Arroyo.
Bronson Arroyo released an album called Covering The Bases while with the Red Sox. It was pretty good imo
How could the Red Suks release Magic Johnson? smh
How are they trying to lose? Do you expect to see them get a Cy Young winner to sign? Cutting Brian Johnson is not a bad thing at all..
Should have been released months ago. Good riddance.
Thank you
good deal. we have plenty of pitching. he’ll be pitching for the Yankees in 3 days. thanks chaim.
Yankees are not picking this guy up
The Mets might.
@Red Eye- If he’s related to Magic. We’ll definitely sign him.
That would be a good thing; we have plenty of games against NYY and Johnson can’t even get innings now with the plethora of pitching “Gems” Boston has.. Let the Yanks pick him up
I wish him well n I hope he finds a place to flourish.
And by pitching, you surely must mean “people able to throw a baseball a little over 60 feet, regardless of results?
That about sums up most of Boston’s pitching staff this season…
Hopefully Brasier is next to go.
Brazier is not one that gives me confidence when he pitches. But Bk I hope Johnson finds a place to play, he’s fought hard to get back.
Wow that’s a pretty interesting move… I mean I’ve never been a huge fan of his but they’ve repeatedly made moves to keep him around and even at times kept him on the roster to avoid exposing him to waivers (in prior seasons). But I guess maybe Bloom isn’t as high on him as Dombrowski was in the past. Regardless he’s a good guy (off the field) and I wish him the best!
I hate to speculate, and you may never know, but makes one wonder if he did something to break quarantine that led to the team kicking him off as zero tolerance …
He wasn’t holding a 40 man spot, and 60 man wasn’t full IIRC…
It sounds like he left camp and then they released him. Maybe it will come out why he left camp.
Because Red Sox are DESPERATE for pitching and still haven’t called him to the big Club. If it was me I’d want out too.
New GM doesn’t see him as a good fit.. Must be a reason (and it’s not to tank).
I guess he’s on the Highway to Hell now.
If the White Sox grab him, he’l be Back in Black.
Releasing this guy was a Dirty Deed done dirt cheap.
Johnson’s got to be Thunderstruck over this for sure.
There it is.
We salute you.
He didn’t Shoot to Thrill enough. Or maybe he got The Jack. Perhaps opposing hitters were just too locked in on his Heatseeker. But whatever it is, he should be Safe in New York now.
Axl Rose is ready to succeed once again. He is more the Furor than Johnson, but money talks…
Gruß,
BSHH
Ha! I asked about Axl a bit deeper in the comments.
Too bad they’re not getting the band back together …
Bored?
And still no Big Sexy
Greatest news all season so far. This guy is horrible.
A lot of deserved roasting of the Sox pitching staff, but they’ve given up 3 or less in the last 4 games.
Johnson isn’t part of that.
Shall we be expecting an Axl Rose signing by the end of the week?
No, but the Patriots recently traded for Michael Jackson.
Sox had no choice here as BJ left their “spring training” team and went home. They had to release him.
An MLB team with worse pitching might go to sign him or maybe a foreign league team might want him to pitch and sing AC-DC covers.
Wish him the best and hope he’s mentally ok 1st and foremost
I remember him getting drafted, I think 2nd round, as a two-way player. Never reached that potential but had a good story with overcoming personal struggles.
Not too concerned about 2020 Sox Definitely looking forward to a top three picks next year so if they tank they tank