The Giants are expected to sign outfielder Daniel Johnson to a minor league contract, reports Shayna Rubin of the San Francisco Chronicle. The former big leaguer opened the season with the Mexican League’s Caliente de Durango.
Johnson, 29, has posted comical numbers in the Mexican League’s supercharged run-scoring environment. He’s hitting .429/.512/.943 with five homers and three doubles through 41 plate appearances (10 games). It’s outrageous production, but readers should bear in mind that the league-average ERA in the Mexican League this year is a sky-high 5.77. The league-average batting line currently sits at an eye-popping .292/.369/.461. Johnson’s numbers remain excellent, of course, but comparing them to the levels of offense one might expect in affiliated ball would be misleading.
A fifth-round pick of the Nationals back in 2016, Johnson was traded to Cleveland in 2018’s Yan Gomes deal. He reached the bigs with Cleveland in 2020 and 2021, and he appeared in a single game with the Orioles just last year, tallying only one plate appearance. Johnson has just 95 big league plate appearances to his credit, during which he’s posted a .200/.242/.333 slash.
While those numbers clearly don’t stand out, the lefty-swinging Johnson has a better Triple-A track record. In parts of five seasons there, he’s a .255/.324/.446 hitter. That includes 500 plate appearances of league-average offense with the Orioles’ Norfolk affiliate last year (.259/.320/.448) and a stronger .296/.384/.583 performance with the Padres’ El Paso club back in 2023.
The Giants don’t have an immediate need for help in the outfield. Each of Heliot Ramos, Jung Hoo Lee and Mike Yastrzemski is enjoying a productive season at the plate — the latter two in particular (although Ramos has been on fire himself the past two weeks or so). Twenty-three-year-old Luis Matos is on hand as a seldom-used fourth outfielder at the moment. Depth options on the 40-man roster but down in Triple-A include Wade Meckler, Grant McCray and former shortstop prospect Marco Luciano, who’s been deployed strictly as a left fielder in 2025.
Johnson will add some further depth to that group. He’s played center field exclusively in Mexico this season but has 1200+ innings at all three outfield spots in his professional career.
Johnson might be a fallback option should Matos or Luciano or Meckler or McCray end up being involved should there be a future trade
I keep thinking a trade for a 1st baseman is needed. They’re not getting sufficient production out of that position. Giants offense looked anemic against the Padres.
Giants are cursed against the Padres.
It’s the Bruce Bochy curse.
From poaching Bochy from his post as Padres Manager.
Worth it
Overall , the Padres have an overall record of 453-494 (47.8%) against us. Hardly a curse. btw Johnson’s 2RBI triple won the game for SAC last night.
1b but also RF. Matos has been not good so far. they definitely need to think about what is going to happen if they need to send him down. there are also a whole bunch of moving parts when it comes to the infield, with fitz and shcmitt out for a while you may need to look at doing something like moving luciano back to 1b or 2b if they aren’t sold on koss and wisely in the interim and one way or another someone has to fill the roster in AAA. I would think encarnaceon could be filling that 1b hole once he returns – the cast is off and he should be rehabbing here
Luciano will never play the infield again—certainly not for the Giants.
bag o ballz, You say RF, but instead list Matos as the problem. Matos has only played 7 games in RF, only a quarter of those with Yastrzemski. In WAR by position the Giants have the 10th highest WAR for RF. And Matos has only been in 13 games all season (12 starts), so it’s way too early to know whether he can be productive as the 4th outfielder.
Dipping in the well again (Jerar Encarnacion).
I wanna go see a Mexican League game someday. I bet they’re fun.
Love baseball and the American version, but the energy México brings is probably only one upped by Japan. Plus it’s fun to see all of the ex big leaguers. In the game I went to saw Robby Cano, Tommy Milone, Aristides Aquino, Yermin Mercedes, and Willians Astudillo plus others.
How does the Mexican League manage to have such lopsided outcomes in pitching vs hitting? Is it small ballparks or what?
Top tier elevation levels. Helps the baseballs flyyyyyyy
I feel he’s going to rock this town.
Weird choice. When he was in Cleveland, he made constant baserunning errors and his fielding routes were awful. He can’t hit well to make up for it so he’s a 0-tool player. Hopefully he learned a bit more about baseball since, but I’d take an aging vet with a good track record over him.
@sanfran Thanks, I’d forgotten about the elevation thing…well, at least in terms of Mexico City anyway. Over 7,000 feet – ayyiyi!