The Guardians announced that outfielder Daniel Johnson has been dealt to the Mets for cash considerations. Johnson will be assigned to Triple-A Syracuse.
A fifth-round pick for the Nationals in the 2016 draft, Johnson was acquired as part of the Yan Gomes trade in 2018, and it seemed like Cleveland might have gotten a steal. Johnson hit a combined .290/.361/.507 with 19 homers over 547 plate appearances with Double-A Akron (167 PA) and Triple-A Columbus (380 PA) in 2019, putting him on the radar to win a job with a team in constant need of outfield help.
However, over 35 games with the Guardians in 2020-21, Johnson has hit only .202/.245/.337 over his 94 career plate appearances in the majors. While not a huge sample size, the Guards appeared ready to move on from Johnson after the season, as he was designated for assignment and then outrighted off the 40-man roster back in November.
Johnson’s Triple-A numbers came back to earth in 2021, and he has full-on struggled this year, batting .217/.217/.337 in 69 PA with Triple-A Columbus this season. He’ll now head to the Mets organization for a fresh start, and he’ll provide New York with some depth at all three outfield positions. Johnson’s defense has been well-regarded, and he possesses a strong throwing arm that makes him ideal for right field in particular.
We need starting and relief pitching. The front office is run by idiots
Whoever handles the comment posting on your account is also run by idiots.
@Bk11235 Yeah so lets just waste our valuable time and resources on triple a depth when we have 3 starters out, and 3 quaters of our relief staff stinks. You don’t have a clue
Are you mental? Nobody is trading anyone until late June at the earliest? Who do you want to trade for now that will help? Walker Carrasco and Peterson just turned in excellent starts. Bullpen just helped them win multiple games and kept them in Tuesdays game til the end. Today’s game happens to everybody when you play multiple doubleheader and have to start a bum like szapucki. Friday it goes back to Carrasco walker Peterson then bassitt and Williams. No problem!
And ps bullpen today has thrown 5.2 innings 7 so and 2 bb 0 runs and 1 hit allowed so… if anything Trevor Williams should of started today and szapucki should of backed him up
@Bk11235 You probably thought Drew Smith is an excellent pitcher when he was doing well. I’ve been saying all season on here that hes terrible. You bringing up that the bullpen hasn’t given up a run today is irrelevant. Nobody cares how well the bullpen does when the game is practically over with. The relievers have stunk when the games have been close. Nobody cares about when a guy does well in mop-up duty. Its all about being good in close games and its clear most of the Mets relievers arent
“All season”. All 1.5 months of it.
Smith is good. Nobody is 0.00 era good “all season”. Bullpen has been a pleasant surprise actually. The team is light years ahead in their division, and among the best teams in the mlb record wise. They will lose a game or two. Calm down. This is a great pickup for depth, what if nimmo gets hurt or mcneil breaks his knee diving into a wall, or the outfield gets Covid. You always need depth. They are looking at all options but as someone else stated, trades will be hard to come by right now. Cohen will do what needs to be done when it needs to be done. That time is not now. Enjoy a great fun team for once and stop hating on them when they are playing the best baseball I have watched in my life and meshing tremendously as a team and unit.
My dude, you are a goldfish.
Not true. Adonis Medina’s performance against the Phillies a few weeks ago was monumental and it allowed the Mets to score 7 runs in the top of the ninth to take the lead. The Mets had just had a huge comeback last night after being down 8-2. They weren’t able to hold onto the lead, but there are no throwaway games. The Mets didn’t have a big comeback in them today, but you cannot discount the fact that the bullpen shut out the Giants for 6-2/3 innings while the Mets scored three runs. The Mets had just scored 25 runs over the past two days. There’s no reason to assume it wasn’t possible to happen again.
You’ve been saying everyone is terrible. You’re one of those Mets fans the rest of us can’t stand. Never anything good to say.
No valuable nothing was wasted in added this player. It’s a peripheral move that has nothing to do with the separate search for pitching additions. Additions that can’t just be added overnight by snapping one’s fingers. This is how baseball works.
Amen, my brother!
@LFGMets It’s spelled “multitasking” and is called “acquiring useful minor league depth at positions of need.”
What do you think happens, that the FO is only allowed to spend 5 minutes a week on player acquisitions?
@findingnimmo Smith, indeed, is good—but!, his delicate right arm should NOT be leading Mets relievers in IP. Longtime Smith watchers were not surprised when he got wobbly with increased use in mid-May.
This is a depth move and has nothing to do with trDing for starters or relievers. No team is giving up anything this early!
@Bk11235 2 Agree with everything save your last sentence. It’s true the price is often higher, but sometimes that price is only throwing in your #18 prospect and an IFA everyone else has given up on. There’s a lot to be said for putting as much distance as you can between your club and the pack as early as you can. Had the Mets gone for it early last year and been 8 games ahead near the deadline with, say, Kyle Gibson already in the rotation, the Braves and Phillies would have shifted to working on 2022.
Traded for a batting practice pitcher to be named later. Well, ok, name him now ….. Tom Szapucki.
They literally just gave up cash for him. You honestly think this prevented them from doing other deals? Honestly, in your head, was the entire front office in some “war room” negotiating the $ being sent over until the wee hours of the morning ?!?! Did Oakland call and have an offer for Montas but Eppler declined the call bc he was negotiating with Cleveland?!?! Hahahahaha dude you’re a clown
Jesus, I hope you don’t day trade. You’d either go broke or have a stroke before you got that far.
Johnson has a great arm!
The Mets front office has been doing a great job, I’m sure they’re on the verge of getting a couple of much needed arms for depth as well. Maybe they can work deals like Oakland does and get a player for cash and a player named later. We’ll see soon.
Trevor Cahill. Signed as depth, reporting to Syracuse.
Cahill’s not a bad pickup at all given the price, that they gave up no talent for him, and that his FIPs in 3 of the last 4 years have been respectable.
Surprised he’s not in someone’s system.
True gloves will find you in the end.
RIP Daniel Johnston
I’m not sure who you are talking about but his name is Daniel Johnson.
True Love Will Find You in the End
Song by Daniel Johnston
There was no such team as the Guardians in 2021-2022. Let’s not change history. If you don’t want to say Indians, just say Cleveland.
Who cares? They’re the Guardians now. No one is trying to change history. It’s equally confusing either way so let it slide.
And there was no such team as the Rays before 2008 but their time as the Devil Rays didn’t just vanish into thin air. Almost every team in pro sports has moved or changed names at some point in its history, so what’s your point?
Has the name change been especially hard for you? There’s always counseling. Maybe you could ask your PCP for a number to a good therapist.
Does this sentence upset you?.. “Evan Longoria was a first round draft pick by the Tampa Bay Rays”
Technically, the team was still the “Devil Rays” when they drafted him. Do you consider that changing history?
Changing history can be a huge deal (like holocaust deniers or people that downplay the treatment of slaves). We are talking about the name of a sports team.. it is not a big deal.
Get over it.
This move might setup the Mets to move a player some other team WANTS in a trade for SP or RP. So, until LFGMets runs the front office, he should consider all of the angles
Or it might be a a depth move for their minor league roster. Either way the point is still the same, LFGMets needs to understand all the angles.
I believe this might be in response to the Mets organization demoting Khalil Lee from AAA due to his offensive struggles.
@angt22 Yes–and to A ball, no less. Sounds like it might have been a discipline problem as in, after repeated instruction to stop hitting the ball into the ground as he has been to wont to do over the past several years, Lee simply won’t consistently elevate his swing (which is probably the entire key to his becoming an MLB-caliber hitter).
Lee’s the kind of player who can go from extremely good to useless in about a minute, so if he’s not listening it’s easy to see the team getting frustrated to the point of being ready to release him, and deciding on some tough love, instead.
It was surprising to see the Mets go into the season with just Lee and Nick Plummer as depth after faking the 4th OF slot as of Opening Day with Dom Smith and Jeff McNeil, particularly when Nimmo, Marte, and Canha rated to miss about 140 starts between them. Still, given where they had already pushed payroll, finding a solid 4th OFer capable of starting for much of the season might have been too expensive. You have to stop spending at some point, I suppose.
Lee’s potential has always been overstated in my opinion
Nice to see that Mets’ conversations don’t make any more sense than Guardians’ convos.
Depth move. And a wise one. Once highly regarded in Nats system, decent minors #s with Cleveland along with some major league playing time and still kind a young (26) … and Cleveland was willing make it happen for some cash. Geez, why not?
As a Guardians fan, it’s telling if they’re willing to give up on an outfielder. If they saw any chance of him contributing, they’d still have him.
That said, if I was a fan of another team, this is exactly the kind of move I’d want my team to make. His minor league numbers from the last two years aren’t good, but he was a solid prospect before then and he does have tools. There’s upside there even if there might not be much of a floor. He’s got some power, speed, and can play a decent outfield with an elite arm in right. The question is just if he’ll ever hit enough for any of it to matter.
@Michael Chaney All well said, but given the overall fragility of an OF of Nimmo, Marte, and Canha, plus Dom’s struggles, plus cutting Cano which makes it less possible to put McNeil in LF, plus Khalil Lee’s demotion to single-A, the Mets might be more than satisfied with an OFer who gives them nothing more than replacement level performance.
With Jake, Max, and Megill out, with Carrasco and Walker’s fragility, with Bassit’s severe limitations (exceeding 90 innings all of twice in his career as of age 33), and now soon heading into that part of the season where your regular position players tend to drop like flies, the FO is surely strapping in and expecting to have to struggle for wins on most days.
For the next six weeks this probably won’t be a .500 team.
Must have thought it was Kelly Johnson.
Lot of argument over a meaningless minor league transaction.
He won’t even sniff the majors with that slash. And if he does then the Mets will have some problems.
People forget that teams have an entire system they have to keep full of players and they need to build contingencies for injuries and covid outbreaks at the major league level. Even if you completely disregard any of Johnson’s upside, he is an expendable depth piece if you get in a pinch.. and he costs practically nothing.
A year ago there were high hopes for Johnson. Really good minors numbers vs RHP, over .900 ops in 3 of his seasons. A good strong side platoon bat. Had a bad last year both on field and popping off on Twitter. Dumb harmless stuff. Still hope for him.
goodbye DJ. I hope your 80 grade arm gets more of a shot in NY than it got in Cleveland. The CLE FO is content running Oscar Mercado out there day in and day out, and only gave DJ 94 plate appearances in 2 seasons.
He could definitely benefit from a change of scenery. In addition to poor offensive numbers in the minors, I think the big reason Cleveland chose Mercado over DJ is the defense. Johnson has that great throwing arm but I do not think they ever saw him as a competent defender. Hopefully he catches on with the Mets though.
Bullpen slot for DJ?