The San Diego Padres have signed starting pitcher Josh Johnson to a 1 year, $8 million dollar contract. He will earn an extra $1.25 million dollars if he starts in 26 games for the Padres in this upcoming season.
The Padres signed him to a very team friendly deal (1 year, $8 million). That’s the perfect deal for a guy like Josh Johnson. He pitched in Miami for eight years, and he did really well, but then he was traded to the Toronto Blue Jays and he played poorly in his only season with them. I think that is because the American League is harder to pitch in than the National League, and the Toronto Blue Jays’ stadium, the Rogers Centre, is a very difficult ballpark to pitch in. Going back to the National League will do Josh Johnson some good. If he doesn’t do so well, then that’s okay, it won’t hurt the Padres too much because of that one year deal. It’s a low risk, high reward situation here.
According to Tim Dierkes of MLB Trade Rumors, the Pittsburgh Pirates were runners up on Josh Johnson. I think that Josh Johnson is a better fit with the Pirates than the Padres. PNC Park is a pitcher friendly stadium, and the Pirates have had success with guys like Johnson in the past. Look what they did to Francisco Liriano and A.J. Burnett; both were coming off of awful seasons when they signed with the Pirates, and they ended up becoming great pitchers with the Pirates. I think that Johnson would have been better off signing with the Pirates, but I still think that he is going to help the Padres tremendously.
The Padres’ pitching staff appears to be set in stone now, here’s my projection of what it will look like:
- Andrew Cashner
- Josh Johnson
- Ian Kennedy
- Eric Stults
- Tyson Ross
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