There’s definitely a reason for this.
This morning, Chronicle beatwriter Shayna Rubin reported that the San Francisco Giants “are expected to sign outfielder Daniel Johnson to a minor league contract.” She makes mention of the 29-year old left-handed hitter’s current line for the Caliente de Durango of the Mexican League (managed by former major league catcher Ronny Paulino): .429/.512/.943 with 5 home runs and 3 doubles to go with a 2:1 K:BB in 10 games (41 PA).
The addition is the third this week. On Wednesday, the team added 28-year old 3B Devin Mann and 26-year old OF Cal Mitchell following five others being cut from the minor leagues. That should mean there are two open spots under the domestic reserve list, which controls the maximum number of players an organization is allowed to have outside of Latin America. The current limit is 165 players.
But back to Johnson. What’s going on with the Giants signing a guy based on 41 plate appearances? Is that for real? Yes, it is, and let’s get to why in a moment. How has he stuck around this long is my first question. Johnson, a Vallejo native, was a 5th round pick in the 2016 draft by the Washington Nationals. The Giants would take Ryan Howard (no, not that one) with the very next pick. He’s wound up being 1 of 16 players from that round to make it to the majors, but he’s been the worst position player of the bunch.
According to Baseball Reference, he’s been worth -0.5 rWAR in his 90 career MLB at bats, a little worse than Donovan Walton (-0.3). The best from this round (so far) has been Cavan Biggio (+6.9).
In 2017, Baseball Prospectus published this scouting report, giving him future values of:
40 HIT
45 POWER
70 BASERUNNING
55 GLOVE
60 ARM
Greg Goldstein’s conclusion: “he’ll find a place on a big league roster given his power, speed and fielding ability.”
That mainly came true in 2021, when he got 81 plate appearances thanks to a fill-in everyday job through most of July and the second half of August. He slashed .221/.259/.377, though. His minor league track record doesn’t reveal a hidden gem, either: .267/.332/.449 in 3,401 plate appearances (72% stolen base success rate).
He never would’ve made it onto the last regime’s radar, either, as his career strikeouts to walk ratio of 2.98 is well beyond what Farhan Zaidi treated as an upper bound (2.5 K/BB was usually the highest he’d go). And, his age is a bit misleading. He’ll turn 30 on July 11th. So, can it really be the case that the Giants want some more veteran outfield depth and are going with the best available option?
Yes. Absolutely.
Shayna Rubin
A note on this: The Daniel Johnson signing should add depth to a small position player group in Sacramento with Wisely and Villar in SF.
— SF Giants Bot (@giantbot.bsky.social) 2025-05-02T23:28:09.159130+00:00
I thought maybe they saw a potential Mike Yastrzemski 2.0 here and — you know what? — I can’t discount the possibility. I just don’t exactly see it, and not only because Johnson is older than Yaz was when the Giants got him for a song (or, rather, some Herb) or even because the odds of finding a Yaz 2.0 are extremely unlikely as to make it silly to pursue; no, it’s because
But I’m not going to bet against this guy. He got on the Giants’ radar for a reason. This past winter, they grabbed some guys who’ve had memorable performances in the winter leagues. Luis Matos’s winter league work bumped them into their roster plans, even. The Giants aren’t discounting performances based on league.
He has bounced around a lot and the key is that he keeps bouncing. Liking a guy because of “the cut of his jib” feels of a kind with the Buster Posey we seem to know through interviews and the way he’d play the game. And that sort of narrative around a player probably resonates with Zack Minasian, too. It’s not hard to see that someone who grew up in big league clubhouses could clock a good clubhouse guy. Back in 2019, Johnson also got this profile in a doc called Relentless: A Daniel Johnson Story.
Likable, approachable, and maybe a good guy to have in the clubhouse if he can take some of that Mexican League performance and bring it back to Triple-A.
He’s also from Vallejo. Solano County represent.