The Rockies added an arm and a local product to their bullpen Tuesday, announcing the signing of free-agent righty Pierce Johnson to a one-year deal. The contract reportedly comes with a $5MM guarantee for Johnson, a client of John Boggs & Associates. He can earn an additional $750K of incentives. It’s a nice guarantee for a pitcher coming off an injury-plagued season, though the Rockies perhaps needed to make an aggressive offer in order to persuade the righty to spend his home games at Coors Field, even if Johnson is a Denver native.
Johnson, 31, once ranked among the sport’s top pitching prospects with the Cubs, who originally drafted him with the No. 43 overall pick in 2012, but he didn’t establish himself in Chicago or in San Francisco after being plucked off waivers by the Giants in 2018. An impressive strikeout rate in Triple-A might’ve helped him garner some attention overseas, however, and Johnson parlayed a dominant one-year stop with the Hanshin Tigers of Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball in 2019 into a three-year run with the Padres.
In 2020-21, after signing a two-year deal that contained a 2022 club option, Johnson was a reliable member of the San Diego bullpen. Through 78 2/3 frames, he pitched to a 3.09 ERA with an excellent 32.1% strikeout rate — albeit against an 11.1% walk rate that resided well north of the league average.
The Padres picked up their $3MM option on the heels of that strong showing, but the 2022 season brought an unwelcome change of fortune, as Johnson was sidelined for much of the season due to a forearm injury. When healthy enough to pitch, Johnson totaled just 14 1/3 innings of 5.02 ERA ball; his 32.8% strikeout rate and 12.5% walk rate were at least loosely in line with his 2020-21 levels, but Johnson was plagued by a sky-high .382 average on balls in play. Whether because of the forearm injury or something else, Johnson’s fastball — which averaged 96.3 mph in 2020 — sat at a diminished 94.7 mph in 2022.
Rough as the 2022 season was for Johnson, that 3.09 ERA from 2020-21 — paired with a 13.9% swinging-strike rate and elite spin rate on his curveball — surely garnered interest from multiple clubs. He’ll end up pitching for his hometown Rockies, joining a bullpen that lost Carlos Estevez to the Angels and will likely also see veteran Alex Colome sign elsewhere. While Daniel Bard is entrenched as manager Bud Black’s closer, Johnson has an opportunity to take the lead in a largely unsettled setup corps if he can return to form.
Beyond Bard and Johnson, the Colorado bullpen has righty Dinelson Lamet and lefty Brent Suter as veteran options but is otherwise lacking in experience. Lucas Gilbreath has shown some potential in two big league seasons, but outside of injured Tyler Kinley (who’s recovering from Tommy John surgery), the Rockies don’t have another reliever with even a full year of Major League experience on the 40-man roster.
With Johnson now on board, the Rockies’ projected payroll bumps up to nearly $163MM, per Roster Resource. That puts them nearly $20MM past their franchise-record Opening Day payroll of $145MM, set back in 2019. The extent to which Colorado can continue spending, with payroll already at that level, remains unclear, though in addition to another bullpen arm, the Rox could still use help in center field, in the rotation and at catcher.
Thomas Harding of MLB.com first reported the two sides were in agreement on a one-year deal (via Twitter). The New York Post’s Joel Sherman reported the terms of the contract.
Pierce……Johnson? Wow, poor fella.
A.K.A. Prince Albert
“Pierce Johnson”
Now, thats gotta hurt!!!
Hey! Did you know that Wang means Johnson in Chinese?
Congrats and good luck, Pierce!
Good pitcher but probably not worth killing your career by signing in COL when you are at the age where you’re hoping to get another contract.
What career has pitching for the Rockies killed?
Mike Hampton? Denny neagle? I’m sure there are more lol
That was a lifetime ago. Pre-humidor.
Jason Jennings, Jeff francis?
Both were drafted by the Rockies and spent their best years in Colorado. Not exactly the best example.
They need to get bats and forget about pitching Like the 90s
Wade Davis (mortally wounded)
Seunghwan Oh (passed away in home surrounded by loved ones)
Chad Qualls (dead)
Tyler Matzek (survived)
Eddie Butler (wounded and later died)
Miguel Castro (survived)
All bad examples. You’re just naming Rockies pitchers, lol. Davis and Qualls were already dead (except Davis was very good his first year in Colorado). Oh was good for them. Butler was just a busted prospect. Matzek was a head case. Actually the best example is Bryan Shaw, and the team has now learned that cutter dominant pitchers can’t pitch at altitude.
Then the slider only Johnson is DOA?
Shaw is a good example but Rockies had Colome last year and he basically only throws cutters. Shaw’s cutter isn’t that great though, not good enough to control at altitude.
They nearly got Matzek. It was VERY close.
Pedro astacio?
He got 5 million! At age 31.
His nickname is “Ow!”
I don’t think anyone else got that. Sean Casey called him “Bruiser” on MLB Network
Rockies love local players, so Johnson, who is from Arvada, made too much sense.
Probably not the easiest to do, but I think it might benefit the Rockies to target pitchers in the draft from Colorado or other Mountain West states. In theory, they’d be used to pitching in altitude
Prince Albert??
Once he retires he’ll be back to 007 movies
Didn’t he star in “Dr. Gooden” or was it “Splitfinger”? Or perhaps it was “For Your K’s Only.” Not sure.
Had to be about the money…you don’t go to a “never going to be a contender” pitchers grave yard for equal pay.
It’s his home town.
Pitching, getting paid. Sounds like Pierce wins in this deal.
When healthy he is a pretty good reliever.
While my instinct is to make fun of the Rockies moves, this could work out, if healthy. He has a 12.1 K9 rate over the past three seasons, which helps offset the Mile-high thing.
Will his slider slide in mile high air?
When it comes to your Johnson, which do you prefer?
Lance or Pierce?
Since size definitely matters, one is much larger.
Pitching in Denver might be more difficult, but $ 5m is a solid deal for a reliever – even more so after coming off a bad year. Returning home must be a very nice bonus for Johnson.
Gruß,
BSHH
Only thing I know about Johnson is he holds the record for most HBP in a season and he did it as a reliever. Oh, and he throws 90% sliders.
Had a few good moments in San Diego but never clutch. 5 million ain’t peanuts.
Baseball contracts are getting dumb. Not l9ng ago an injury plagued season got you a minor league invite.