Jays Release Reed Johnson

I don't know what the Jays will do with all the guys, but I do know that J.P. Ricciardi will lie about it.

The Stairs deal made sense as insurance for Overbay and Hurt, as well as a good lefty bat off the bench. It does, however, block Lind, which leads me to believe that Lind isn't in the Jays' long-term plans. If the Jays are serious about signing Rios long-term, then the outfield until 2012 or so will be Wells, Rios, and Travis Snider. Overbay has a long-term deal too, so I don't see Lind moving in there any time soon.

To me, the solution is simple: Trade Lind. Given his potential to be a solid lefty bat and his cheap price, he's the kind of player a team like the A's, Reds or Mets could be interested in. He's also the only guy, short of Rios, who could maybe be packaged to get us some sort of reasonable end-of-the-rotation starter, which we now need on a count of Janssen's labrum.

I would hate to give up on Lind's potential, but if he was really in the Jays' plans, we wouldn't have three stopgaps on salary. His value will also be fairly high now, which could be jeopardized by below-expectation performance in Syracuse or Toronto.

Trade Lind ??? I would much rather trade Stairs. There's no way he'll produce like last year unless he's DH'ing all the time. And when i say trade, i also mean it be find just to DFA him.

"I don't know what the Jays will do with all the guys, but I do know that J.P. Ricciardi will lie about it."

Damn. I was going to make a joke about the same thing. You stole my line Largedavid.

Trade Stairs? Nobody would give anything up for Stairs. As for Johnson, I don't know if MLBTR is an accurate reflection of prevailing opinion among actual MLB front offices, but I've developed a mini-obsession with how often his name comes up in discussions on this site about 4th OF openings. If he hasn't already been dealt, it seems unlikely to me that he would be.

I think Stairs will have a good year, but he's D will still not be good.

Lind is still in the plans, but maybe not for this year, or if they get injured (Stewart is just a big a risk of this as Reed). I think offensively Stewart and Reed are pretty similar, but Reed is better defensively. Don't trade Lind while his value is down: worst case, you move him to 1b, and trade Overbay's reasonable contract if he has a good year. I think I'd most want Lind out there but the reason he isn't is they don't want to take chances. And a Lind-Stairs platoon wouldn't work, because Stairs is poor defensively, and would have no other use. Ultimately I'd go with Reed and Lind, but whatever.

Maybe I'm missing something, but doesn't this guy match up perfectly with the Cubs need of a decent 4th outfielder/insurance for Pie who hits right handed? If he's available, I'd like to see the Cubs go after him. Wouldn't take much would it?

Reed Johnson was released today, you can go see it on bluejays.com I'm surprised to see him released and not traded? Also I'm surprised that they didn't keep Johnson in case Stewart doesn't produce in LF.

No way I see the A's being interested in something like that, unless they essentially give away Johnson for next to nothing, they're looking for players who have yet to crack the Major Leagues. Not someone who's gotten a ton of service time already like Johnson.

As for the link you posted Tim, it seems that was in regards to the idea of TRADEing for Johnson. As they make no mention of his release and speculate that the Mets aren't willing to give up quality chips now that they might need for a deal in July. I would think they would become much more interested when the only compensation is money now.

Johnson hasn't started more then 11 Games in CF since 2004 and his range is well below average out there. I doubt he'd fit the Cubs plans.

If his range is below average out there than forget it. The Cubs have a staff full of flyball pitchers, we can't afford someone in CF who can't cover ground.

With a salary at over $3M it figured that the Jays would have a hard time trading Johnson.

The Blue Jays did Johnson a favor, releasing him early with a $500,000 payout, and now someone will snatch him up real quick, probably at a salary of around $900,000.

Johnson is a gamer, rock solid defensively and can contribute offensively. He'll be a bargain for any team looking for an outfielder.

As for the Jays, Shannon Stewart now gets many starts in left field where he will be a liability on defense but he's a better hitter

Would be nice if the Jays could now dump Frank Thomas, who I think has a clause in his contract that says he doesn't have to start producing until the team is eliminated from the playoffs. Big fat slow Frank Thomas - hopefully the Jays don't give him enough at-bats to saddle the team with a $10M contract in '09

Cubs need a cheap right handed hitting CF who can lead off...

Despite how much I thought I hated Johnson, I have the feeling that he's going to have an awesome year somewhere else. As JaysBeliever knows, I don't like Stewart. I think rushing giving Lind the platoon would've been the best. He could've learned from Stairs. He's not ready to start 162 games, but neither is Stairs, so why not share the job?
I still don't understand why we re-signed Stairs, or why we didn't test him for his half of the platoon.

Rizdak, I think you're correct. San Diego could use Johnson, both as a defensive replacement in the latter innings for Hairston and perhaps more if Johnson regains his '06 form.