Johnson doesn’t represent a pitcher with much of a ceiling, but he’s already pitched 58 AAA innings and can definitely compete for a roster spot this Spring Training on some teams. His AAA stats are underwhelming, but in the 2nd half of the season, his ERA went down. Johnson has 3 average or better pitches, with his changeup being the best (which is why he’s flown under the radar). The main question for Johnson is if his lowly 14.5% K% from AAA this season is as high as it can get in the MLB, or if that was a fluke compared to his career strikeout numbers, which are a bit more promising.
Here is a video of him striking out MLBer Juan Soto shortly before Soto’s promotion:
This time Jordan Johnson gets the better of Soto. FB, CB, CH, CH for the whiff. pic.twitter.com/oJh7pEwJ5J
— Josh Norris 🐻 (@jnorris427) May 19, 2018
Outside of that, Johnson has shown the ability to control walks and home runs, as well as go deep into games. Ultimately, Johnson doesn’t represent much of a project. He is only ranked #23 among Giants prospects per MLBPipeline.com, but he is as developed as he will ever be so I could see a team taking a shot.
Martin is another former 1st rounder that didn’t turn out to be as good as his team had hoped he would be. The Athletics did get a plus defending shortstop out of Martin, but he didn’t develop his bat much at all and it appeared he was a bust. Until 2018, that is. Martin broke out in his 2nd season of AA, with a 121 wRC+ and an improved BB%, K%, and ISO.
He was helped out a bit by his high BABIP and a selection in the Rule 5 draft would mean skipping AAA, so it’s still clear that Martin would be defense first, but his bat isn’t lagging too far behind for what you hope in a shortstop anymore, especially when you take into account the 25 stolen bases he had this season. There’s good reason to believe this breakout wasn’t just a fluke, also, considering this is the first season in awhile he was able to stay healthy.
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