Blue Jays Release Reed Johnson

[stro4swift]

23rd March, 2008 - 9:52 am
AP - Shannon Stewart appears to have won the job as the Blue Jays

[Mak]

Too bad, i liked him a lot. I guess injuries really hurt him but a couple of years ago he was awesome in LF.

[OldNo7]

I honestly dont understand it. He better have lingering health issues.

[2009NBAChamps]

wow... unless Stewart is playing out of his mind and made Johnson disposable.... but still could we not have tried trading him to get something of value back?

[risktaker91]

I honestly dont understand it. He better have lingering health issues.

Me neither, Reed definetely doesn't deserve to be released. I'm hoping he had some serious health issues.

[5DOM]

-= original quote snipped =-



Me neither, Reed definetely doesn't deserve to be released. I'm hoping he had some serious health issues.

wow thats nice

[asif9t9]

Looking at Shannon's batting average, he wasn't even having a good Spring.

I really think we'll end up regretting the Stairs signing. Not sure why they're so hooked on giving him a job. Last year was great, but it reminded me of the ONE good year Greg Myers had when he returned to the team a few years ago. Then they signed Stairs for 2 more years.

I don't get it.

[evilRyu]

couldn't we have fetched something for Reed? Maybe a late draft pick? Oh yeah, they do'nt trade draft picks in baseball

I was a huge Reed fan 2 seasons ago....

[spykelee]

so wait a minute....

Johnson was hitting .289 with three doubles and 3 RBI's and Stewart is hitting .226??

And we're keeping Stew??? I like Shannon alot, though he's definetely fallen off in the latter stages of his career, but how do we just waive Reeder? The descision itself seems a little odd, but to not even attempt to deal him... he must have health issues because even JP can't be that stupid, can he?

[whysoserious]

I really don't understand what JP is doing with this team. Interesting discussion on PTS the other day and that is that this team has no identity and all the moves Ricciardi has made of late seem of desperation to save his job.

Don't even get started on his draft record. Most of the young guys that have made the club were part of this organization prior to him coming in and we have a bare cupboard when it comes to top prospects while the Yanks and Red Sox have an abundance of these.

This could very well be JP's last year and if they don't make the playoffs, it's time to end the 7 year's of mediocrity and move on.

[arrpy]

Well, this was a little unexpected. I wonder what JP's reasoning was...

[squeekysneakers]

Wow this move came a little out of left field (pun intended).

Reed was never a JP favourite and this move ultimately leads to Lind coming up and taking the job if/when Stew falls off a bit. I like Stew from an offensive standpoint but I will definitely miss him. He reminded me of Lenny Dykstra back on those old Mets teams.

My favourite reed memory wa a game I attended a couple of years ago. He led off the game with a home run in the bottom of the first and then ended the game on a walk off home run.

Sadly those days are in the distant past.

I gaurantee he will find a job sometime in the next few weeks, he is far too good to be out of a job for long.

[Jakespeare]

Maybe this means Lind will get the everyday job in LF.

[OldNo7]

Maybe this means Lind will get the everyday job in LF.

In a word: no.

[arrpy]

Maybe this is all part of JP's "plan" of some sort he has cooked up.

[Geddy]

There has to be more to this story than just a simple waive to make roster space. It was odd from the get go that they went and got Stewart when we already had Stairs and Johnson. I don't want to speculate too much, but there had to be something going on with Reed like a possible health issue that might spring up down the road.

Looking back now I wish we had kept Cat instead of Reed.

[SmallTownJournalist303]

The good: Reed isn't going to get any undeserved playing time this year, as IMO he's not a starting-calibur left fielder right now.
The bad: We just released a quality bench player for nothing.
The disgusting: Shannon Stewart is our starting left fielder.

[Mr. Perfect]

All you haters watch, Shannon Stewart is going to get 50+ stolen bases this year.


No, but seriously JP's moves don't even make sense. It's like he's making transactions just for the sake of making them. Glaus for Rolen and now this? Here's to another .500 season...

[Dr Octagon]

Couldn't JP even get a bag of baseballs for him?

I never liked JP, I think he's incompetent, whines and panics too much.

[The_Hater]

I'm far from a huge Reed Johnson fan but the more I think about this move the less I like it.

Whoever we keep at the righty hitting LF is going to be platooned with a very weak defensive player (Stairs or perhaps Lind down the road). So wouldn't it make more sense to keep a guy that can defend in the late innings? Stewart is basically a DH defensively at this point.

When picking up Eckstein and Rolen, JP talked about having more 'dirt bags' no the roster. But isn't Reed the ulitmate dirt bag type player? Good defender, hard nose team guy, will accept any role and can play all 3 OF spots. That pretty much makes him the perfect 4th OF compliment, doesn't it? Not to mention that he's loved by the guys in the clubhouse.

Reed had one bad season coming off of a career year but has hit well all spring. Why doesn't he deserve the benefit of the doubt especially if he's only expected to get 30-40% of the AB's and platoon?

So considering all that, is Shannon Stewart really that much better offensively than Reed? They were virtually a dead heat the past 3 seasons so I'm guessing that the difference is minimal at best.

But hey, the Jays save more $1 million in the process. I'm still not sure if it's worth it. Bad move JP.