5:24pm: The Marlins told teams they would trade only one of Johnson or Sanchez, so it would take a "blowaway" offer to land Johnson as of now, reports Peter Gammons of MLB Network (on Twitter).
4:15pm: Teams inquiring on Johnson are being told his finger issue is minor, ESPN.com's Jayson Stark reports (on Twitter). Johnson is expected to make his next start.
2:49pm: The Blue Jays are interested in Marlins starter Josh Johnson, Jon Paul Morosi of FOX Sports reports (on Twitter). The Blue Jays also have interest in Hanley Ramirez, but their interest in Johnson is stronger, Morosi reports.
Johnson, 28, has a 4.14 ERA with 7.9 K/9 and 2.6 BB/9 in 119 2/3 innings of work this year. The 6'7" right-hander earns $13.75MM per season in 2012 and 2013. He has a ground ball rate of 46.9% and an average fastball velocity of 93 mph, according to FanGraphs. Johnson experienced irritation on the middle finger of his pitching hand in last night's start.
The Blue Jays, now 48-47, are said to be looking for controllable starting pitching options, even after acquiring J.A. Happ. The club's injury-depleted rotation currently includes Ricky Romero, Aaron Laffey, Carlos Villanueva, Henderson Alvarez and Brett Cecil.
The Marlins are drawing interest in a number of players, including Ramirez and Johnson, after trading Anibal Sanchez and Omar Infante to Detroit. They're open to moving Ramirez, but likely to keep Johnson.
Yes please. But knowing the Jays luck this year, if they did trade for him, that irritated finger would need Tommy John surgery.
I’d take him even under those conditions – just for what he could mean down the road. Not quite the next best thing to getting Doc back but ace material if he can get himself straightened out again.
“”The club’s injury-depleted rotation currently includes Ricky Romero, Aaron Laffey, Carlos Villanueva, Henderson Alvarez and Brett Cecil.””
Thats ridiculous. Without these injuries the Jays would really be in this thing.
well with the way villanueva and laffey have pitched, they (so far) have replaced hutch and drabek well.
were badly missing morrow and missing romero’s 11′ form .
This shows that Romero is no CC, or Halliday!
I could see JJ going to the Jays. but id rather have the Jays acquire Garza, but thats just my Cubs fan-nes wishful thinking
If the Jays have to spend 14M a season for a pitcher, I would rather them obtain Johnson than Garza. Johnson has more upside and consider Garza’s stats in the American league. 9 – 4 with a 4.02 ERA against Toronto and Baltimore, but 12 – 29 against Chicago, Boston, New York, Texas, and Anaheim with a 5.43 ERA. At least Johnson could beat those teams, since Garza can’t for the same price. Those are the teams Toronto plays, so you go with the guy that could enjoy some success. Toronto doesn’t play Toronto, making Garza a liability.
I don’t Johnson and Garza would do that well in the AL East, Garza isn’t pitching as well as he did a few years ago. Hamels is man to sign if you want a sure thing.
haha, ya, Jays would probably much prefer JJ.
If there is a rumor we’re interested, it’s not happening. But it would be nice.
Uh oh, AA’s getting that crazy look in his eyes again…
Am I the only reloading the page every two minutes?
Probably I’m doing it every 30 seconds lol.
I remember AA saying “if you heard it in a rumor, chances are it’s not true”
It’s probably just pure speculation. AA’s trades come out og no where.
Since AA is there, it seems we always read the same headline. It’s not a bad thing to let other teams give them a call but in some point, might lose bits of credibility
The Blue Jays are interested in (insert any potentially available pitcher).
Totally agree! He’s all talk/no action!
he’s actually a pretty proactive gm, almost to a fault
Why are you assuming that these things are actually AA’s doing? Could it be the media that generates this?????????…let’s all give that a thought–because nobody really knows dude
I think the trade for JJ starts with D’arnaud.
Yeah, good luck with real life.
Can you even trade someone while they are on the DL?
yes as a PTBNL
They can even be traded while on the DL, it just has to be approved by the commissioner’s office.
Turn the pockets inside out and THEN let Farrell go to work on him..
JJ is one of the guys who could anchor the Jays rotation, then possibly get reupped on an affordable contract next season. Man this guy is dominant. Flat out old fashioned flame thrower.
jays fans are just following suit with their american east big brothers
over value the heck out of all of our prospects.
JJ’s a TOR starter, jays desperately need starters. AA grew the farm system for the very reason to turn this team in to a contender.
Bautista’s not getting any younger, and if you are going to win while he’s here, they need to surround him with some more help
I believe they would trade Arencibia before they would D’arnaud.
rightfully so, but i doubt arencibia brings back JJ without another high end piece.
I think they’ll wait for d’Arnaud to at least make it to the majors before even remotely consider trading JPA.
please try again. injury prone pitcher whos blistered finger could somehow with johnson luck turns into tommy john. I’m thinking gose, a pitching prospect, not a catcher because they got brantley i think is his name from detroit.
Hey, I can do that, too!
Blue Jays interested in Verlander, Price, Dickey, Bumgarner, Weaver, Strasburg, Hernandez…
I think Gose is the piece going the other way if this deal gets done. He’s redundant in Toronto and the Marlins now have an opening in CF.
I think both Hech/Escobar and Gose can be traded if Jays plan on putting Hanley in 2B that is if they believe he can play atleast league average 2B.
Jays would obviously be sending a king’s ransom if they are getting both JJ and Hanley.
The Marlins will gladly take Casey Jannsen and Brett Lawrie off of the Blue Jays hands.
Yeah, that’s not gonna happen.
Might if Ramirez is included.
if by ramirez you mean stanton
Stanton is untouchable, probably the only Marlin that is.
You mean Stanton’s the same kind of untouchable that Lawrie is?
Well, everyone has a price….
Perhaps the Marlins should also include Heath Bell.
Perhaps the Marlins should also include Heath Bell.
Not sure if serious.
LOL, 50/50….
Call it wishful thinking.
Lawrie is untouchable.
No
So their solution to their injuries is to go after an injury-prone starter?
Johnson is coming off an injury and has been average at best, he would cost the Jays two of their prospect pitchers.
Oh definitely. I think one of the Lansing’s 3 headed monster will have to go. I think Marlin’s will want something like Gose + Nicolino
Not a problem. I make that deal without thinking (assuming JJ passes a physical).
Johnson […] has been average at best
I’m going to assume you didn’t look at his stats page before posting this.
2.98 FIP
3.43 xFIP
3.1 fWAR – on pace for 5 fWAR
He’s been very good this year, and surprisingly healthy.
I think were looking at a deal that would likely be something like Gose and one of the lancing pitchers as the meat and potatoes of the deal then whatever after that maybe Cooper and some pieces. I doubt D’arnaud since he’s out for the year.
It will be interesting to see if AA pulls the trigger. So far, as a GM, he has traded 15 prospects (most of them fringe); made six big acquisition (Morrow Escobar Lawrie Rasmus Johnson and Santos); and several minor acquisitions (Davis Mathis Happ Frasor Villanueva Francisco Francisco etc
There’s a rumor that the Jays are thinking about fielding 9 players tonight. If that’s true, then a trade may be in the works (not necessarily for JJ).
Why would they say they only trade one of them? If your going t have a fire sale, then you gotta make everything available. You can’t have just half a firesale. They should ship ozzie out, no clue why they even brought him in to stat.
The Jays are looking at the basement for a while if they don’t pick up some pitching. The arms race is on it will be interesting to see who gets the best upgrade before the deadline.
The players mentioned are all off the DL. Drabek, Frasor, Hutchison, Litsch, McGowan, Morrow, Perez and Santos are on the DL.