Well sports fans, for those of you hoping you had seen the last of Jim Johnson in an Orioles uniform, you got your wish Monday night. The Orioles have traded their former all-star closer to the Oakland Athletics for second baseman Jemile Weeks, the 12th overall pick in the 2008 MLB draft.
FOX Sports’ Ken Rosenthal was the first to report the deal.
Johnson was set to make roughly $10.8 million this season through arbitration, and those in the warehouse couldn’t justify handing that type of money over to a pitcher who led the majors in blown saves in 2013. With Weeks, 26, not eligible for arbitration until 2015 and making right around the league minimum, the Orioles may have killed two birds with one stone (no pun intended). They basically have shed $10.3 million from the payroll and have brought in someone to potentially fill the gaping hole at second base.
Weeks, brother of Brewers all-star Rickie Weeks, has a career line of .258/.319/.357 in 223 games at the major league level and a career line of .282/.375/.402 in 361 games at the minor league level. Weeks also has a propensity for the stolen base, swiping 22 bags in 97 games as a rookie in 2011.
Now, if this trade allows the Orioles to open up their checkbook for a Curtis Granderson, Carlos Beltran, or Hiroki Kiruda, then all will be right in Birdland. But as of right now, the Birds just lost a player that recorded a MLB-leading 101saves between 2012 and 2013.
For those that think this is a good trade as it stands right now, allow me to play devil’s advocate.
Try to remember back to the darkest days of the franchise when the team routinely handed the ball to closers like Mike Timlin, Jorge Julio, Alfredo Simon, Kevin Gregg, Michael Gonzalez, George Sherill and Chris Ray.
Think about the fact that outside of one season from B.J. Ryan, the time between 1997 and 2012 was spent watching hurler after hurler go out and blow game after game on the way to 14 straight losing seasons. If finding a 50-save closer is so easy, then why do Jim Johnson and Eric Gagne stand alone as the only two pitchers to ever do it in back-to-back seasons?
So who closes now? Do the O’s go with an in-house candidate such as Tommy Hunter or Darren O’Day? Both have their merits but both also come with some baggage.
As good as Hunter was out of the pen last year, his propensity for the long ball throughout his career scares me in a ninth inning role and his ERA was more than a run higher in the second half of the season than the first in 2013.
Darren O’Day has been lights out in his two years for the Orioles, but his 2013 splits (.154 OBA vs. righties, .309 vs. lefties) leads one to wonder if he can hack it as an effective closer.
So do they go out and sign a free agent? The Cardinals’ Edward Mujica and his 37 saves in 2013 are available, though his 11.05 ERA in September, a month where the Orioles expect to be battling for a playoff spot, makes me wince.
I guess time will tell what the Orioles do to replace Jim Johnson, and furthermore, if they do it successfully. For now the jury is still out. So until then, here’s to you, Jim Johnson. Thanks for pitching your butt off in an Orioles uniform and for closing out 122 leads after eight innings. I, for one, will miss you.
