Yanks want Nick Johnson to be their DH?
December 16, 2009, 7:05 pm by iYankees · 19 Comments
According to George King of the NY Post, after losing Hideki Matsui to the Angels, the Yankees are currently discussing a one-year deal with free agent first baseman and former Yankee, Nick Johnson. King states that Johnson would replace Matsui as the team’s DH and the signing would also indicate that “the Yankees will part with Johnny Damon, whom they view at least as a part-time DH and dont want him for more than two years and $20 million.” Damon reportedly does not want an offer from the Yankees unless it is for at least $13 million per year.
Johnson, who earned $5.5 million in 2009, was rumored to be the Yanks’ DH backup plan in late November. “We have had dialogue, things are moving forward,” said Johnson’s agent, Rex Gary, when asked about the current negotiations. “Something could happen to speed things up but it’s hard to predict,” he added. King also notes that the Mariners are interested in Johnson as their first baseman, which could potentially complicate matters for the Yankees.
Known for his patient approach at the plate and for his checkered medical history, Johnson hit .291/.426/.405 between the Nationals and Marlins this season, and has a career .273/.402/.447 line. Having Johnson as the everyday DH would work well as the injury-prone player would likely require regular days off — just as Hideki Matsui did — in order to avoid the disabled list (a list which he is far too familiar with). This would then provide Joe Girardi the roster flexibility needed to rest older players at DH — Alex Rodriguez, Derek Jeter, etc. — while retaining their potent bats.
If Johnson is signed, it will be interesting to compare his contract to Hideki Matsui’s with the Angels.
Photo by Al Messerschmidt/Getty Images
THIS. I. LIKE.
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Yup. Johnson on a one-year deal would be great.
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combo corner outfielder/DH would give us more flexibility. plus he’s a good first baseman – those skills will be wasted if he joins the yanks.
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I do agree in that a corner OF/DH would be more useful. He’s certainly an above average fielder, as well. Perhaps the Yankees still intend on signing Damon even after adding Johnson.
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But they already have 5 OFers, and their UIF can play the OF too. Why does the DH also have to play the OF? If they need to rest Posada/Jeter/ARod at DH can’t they just sit the DH on the bench and have him available to PH?
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AKA Jim Thome… We have plenty of defensive outfielders already with Melky, Gardner and the new guy I think we would do better to just sign the best DH available and not worry about what other position they can play. I can’t see any reason to want Johnson over Thome, one has power the other doesn’t, both maintain high OBP’s but Johnson is purely an on base guy right now since he has very little power in the past year and there is no real way to know if it will return or if he will be healthy enough to actually play and produce. Thome is a more sure bet to play every day and give you 130 if you want from the DH position.
We don’t even know if Johnson can DH, he has been in the NL since 2005 so what happens if we sign him and he becomes like Jason Giambi where he can’t hit well if he isn’t playing the field? We have to move him into first a lot and let Tex move to DH so they can both produce with the vat? Or do we sit Johnson and waste him on the bench? These are questions that should be thought about before signing a guy like that over a real DH.
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I think they still sign Damon
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What a terrible combo… Nick Johnson and Damon?
Jeter, SS
Damon, LF
Johnson, DH
Tex, 1B
Arod, 3B
Posada, C
Cano, 2B
Granderson, CF
Swisher, RF
I’d rather go with Thome over either of these two on a 1 year deal! Johnson has never stayed healthy and probably hits with less power than Damon and will log less inning than Damon.
I’m not encouraged by this signing and if they choose to go Damon and Johnson over Sheets that would be a huge error in judgment.
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Where does Damon fit with Johnson?
How can we sign both of them and still add a pitcher? Damon won’t accept a 1 year deal so you are looking at a 2 year 18 million dollar deal by the time he finally signs and Johnson for at least 5-7 million. Can we really afford to turn around and give Sheets 8-12 million depending on incentives? Do we have to settle for Duscherer if we sign Damon and Johnson? That would be awful! Two terrible DH candidates and a reliever and call it an offseason?
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Jeter, SS
Johnson, DH
Tex, 1B
Arod, 3B
Posada, C
Cano, 2B
Granderson, CF
Swisher, RF
Melky, LF
I guess he gets on base a lot and that is key to hitting 2nd in the lineup but I really don’t view him as much of an upgrade over Damon at this point, in fact Damon is more likely to hit 20 HRs than Johnson is. Just last year he only 8 HRs in 457 ABs, Yankee stadium may help him some but I don’t think it is going to make him a deep ball threat all of a sudden.
I’d much rather be going into the season with more protection behind Alex.
Jeter, SS
Cano, 2B
Tex, 1B
Arod, 3B
Thome, DH
Posada, C
Granderson, CF
Swisher, RF
Melky, LF
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I understand the concerns you might have with Johnson.
I think the wrist surgery he had in 2008 likely cost him his power in 2009. Maybe with another winter of rest under his belt, he’ll have 20 HR pop in 2010. Yankee Stadium should help him out, too, since he’s a lefty. I’m worried about Thome’s age. If he were 37 I’d be more inclined to consider him, but he’s about to be 40. His projections don’t look too promising either, at least from CHONE.
Johnson is definitely an injury-prone player, but Joe Girardi seems to do a good job keeping his players fresh. If the Yankees can get 130 healthy starts from him, then he could offer a very nice return (on a cheap deal).
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He had a 133 starts last year with the Marlins and Nationals with .291/.426/.405/.831, 457 ABs, 133 H, 24 2B, 8 HRs, 99 BBs, 84 Ks, 2 SB, 4 CS now that’s not bad and hitting second in the lineup with that kind of OBP is a plus but if you can bank on Thome posting a .350+ OBP with the kind of power he has I think he is more valuable hitting 5th than Johnson hitting 2nd.
Wrists are tricky he may never be the power hitter he once was and even then at his best he only had 1 season healthy enough to actually post 20 HRs even if he is at the DH position I can’t see him staying healthy all year.
Another thing with Johnson is part of his value is in him playing great defense at first which can further make up for his drop in power but if he is hitting 10-15 HRs as a DH who has an OBP of 400 is he really more valuable than Thome having a .360-.370 OBP with 30-40 HRs especially when Thome will be driving in a lot more runs and be in situations with runners on a lot in our lineup.
With Johnson you get someone who gets on base and can be driven in by the power hitters behind him but with Thome the name alone with prevent teams from walking Alex to get to Thome, I mean it is a pretty big difference with Thome up and Tex and Alex on and Posada up and Tex and Alex on. Posada is good but Thome is a very legitimate HR threat and would provide great power from the 5th spot in the lineup. I can see the worry in his age but in 2008 he average a HR every 14.98 ABs and in 2009 he average a HR every 15 ABs with the White Sox as a DH to me that shows consistency at a rate that wouldn’t concern me for 1 more year, if he wanted a 2 year deal you would laugh but he knows that and having the chance to play for a real winner I think you would get the best out of the old man.
I’m not really thrilled with what looks to be the inevitable signing of Johnson but I guess I will live with it if we sign Ben Sheets, if somehow we end up with Duscherer or somebody like that I am going to be pretty pissed.
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The doubts are definitely within reason. Johnson may never have the power he once could have had and he’ll always be one bad swing away from a trip to the disabled list. His upside is always alluring, though. I think having him in the lineup would further the Yankees’ relentless OBP attack on opposing pitchers. Even without much power or speed, as long as he’s a duck on the pond, that’s where his value will lie.
I took a deeper look at Jim Thome’s numbers. His power is really starting to decline. His ISO has declined with each year, since 2006. CHONE projects him to hit, I believe, 23 home runs. Given his age and declining skills, I would rather take a flier on Johnson, who could at least play first base once in a while (though it’s not necessary) and could rebound, power-wise, in 2010. Johnson was also slowed by some hamstring issues in the second half, so perhaps that explains why his power failed him this year.
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A duck in the water that can’t swim just clogs up the water and creates a mess… He is slow, injury prone and fat none of these things make my eyes pop out, sure hie .400 OBP looks good but when you are hitting 8 HRs in 457 ABs you won’t be playing unless you get on base that much because you aren’t really knocking in that many runs. The guy only had 24 doubles last year which is in part due to his lack of speed and in part due to his lack of power.
The fact that Nick was slowed by wrist surgery, hamstring injuries and a back injury in 2009 alone shows just how injury prone he truthfully is… the guy hasn’t gone a season in his being league career without being injured once and as with this year he often gets injured several times throughout the year and see several DL trips in one year. He is a huge risk for not a lot of upside for a DH… If he was providing above average D at first base then he would providing more to the team but as just a DH I am not thrilled.
I say if we are taking injury fliers lets go with one that has a much better chance of being a productive DH and with someone who is coming off of one injury that we know we can deal with and make him healthy.
Carlos Delgado… He is 37 and coming off of hip surgery but it isn’t that much different than what Alex had last year and he was able to come back in the same and put up 30 HRs and 100 RBI while playing 3B and missing a day every week so with and entire offseason and spring training in between the surgery Delgado should be more than fine to DH. Delgado has been hitting Hrs at a HR every 15 AB clip for years now and in 2008 had 38 HRs (which is 40 easily in Yankee stadium) and while he may not walk as much as he once did he did post a .353 OBP in 2008 which when combined with 38 HRs is much better than Johnson’s .400 OBP and 8 HRs. Last year when The Mets moved to a much bigger park (Citi Field) Carlos showed that he can reinvent himself as he only had 4 HRs in 94 ABs (HR every 23 ABs) but his OBP went up to .393 and his doubles were up from the pace he had the year before showing his power was still there.
What is a better situation for Delgado but to remain in New York where he proved he can play and handle the pressure and return to the AL East where he spent the majority of his career as a DH on a winning team that has a medical staff that just handled and treated properly the almost exact same injury as he is recovering from? A Healthy Delgado would hit 35 HRs easily and could go over 40 with enough ABs but even if he is just hitting 34-38 HRs that is more than enough from the DH position hitting behind Alex and providing real protection.
Jeter, SS
Cano, 2B
Tex, 1B
Arod, 3B
Delgado, DH
Posada, C
Granderson, CF
Swisher, RF
Melky, LF
What happens if we sign Johnson to DH and then he realizes that he is like Jason Giambi and he can’t perform well unless he is playing the field? The man has no DH experience and has spent the last 5 yeas in the NL so how do we know he can mentally do well at the DH all year? If he suddenly sucks unless he is playing first base do we find a way to dump Tex more so Johnson can play 1B? Doesn’t make sense, do we send him to the bench? We can’t because we can’t waste the money and because we would only have Miranda to DH at that point.
Between the big park he played in with the Marlins and the smaller Nationals park Nick Johnson should have better HR numbers and better double numbers so I really don’t look at Yankee stadium as his savior, he never hit more than 15 with us the first time around and never cracked 400 ABs or 20 doubles with us either. It sounds to me like they just want someone who was a Yankee before and will walk a lot which is a dumb move IMO when you can still go out and get an actual DH for as much money or less than Johnson wants.
Last I had heard Johnson wanted a 2 year deal so if he is being whittled down to a 1 year deal it must mean the money is going up in that 1 year.
Johnson came up with a lot of potential but at this point in his career he isn’t a smart investment, sure he will walk a lot for the time he is healthy but how long will you expect him to be healthy? When you get injured swinging whether you make contact or not how healthy can you stay?
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With Johnson you are talking a about a guy with terrible luck and has ended up on the DL with everything from broken hands, hurt back, broken cheek bone, wrist surgery and more and a lot of these injuries came while he was batting not on the field so making him a DH doesn’t really take away his injury risk and what do you do if he does end up on the DL as history would tell us it would? [He has broken 600 plate appearances just once, and has had more than 500 plate appearances just three times].
So what do you do if he gets hurt and ends up on the DL? Does Melky move to RF, Swisher to DH and Gardner to LF? That is a pretty good outfield defensively but I really don’t think that kind of production from the outfield will get us very far, and when he does get hurt you end up with Cano or Granderson hitting 2nd anyway only this time you have Posada hitting 5th and Swisher or Granderson hitting 6th.
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I agree. Assuming Johnson is the only other bat they sign this winter, if he is injured, which is certainly a possibility, then the Yankees will have their work cut out for them offensively.
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He is a bigger injury risk as a DH then any other player you could sign who played a full season last year, I mean he has an injury or more every single year and even gets injured just swinging the bat so what is the likleihood he doesn’t miss time again?
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