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DUNEDIN, FLA. — Shannon Stewart's offensive abilities are easier to quantify than Reed Johnson's talents — and that turned out to be the trump card in deciding the right-hand hitting left-fielder's spot in the Toronto Blue Jays lineup.
The Blue Jays released Johnson on Sunday after failing to find any takers on the trade market, in the process getting rid of a fan favourite just one season removed from a 2006 in which he hit .319 and led the team with 147 hits.
"We're going to miss Reed's defence and grittiness but at this point, we decided to go with offence over anything else," general manager J.P. Ricciardi said, explaining the decision to cut the ties with Johnson, who was limited to just 79 games in 2007 after undergoing surgery for a herniated disk.
Stewart will open the season in a platoon with left-hand-hitting Matt Stairs.
Shannon Stewart appears to have won Jays' left-fielder job after Toronto released Reed Johnson on Sunday. (Steve Nesius/Reuters)
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"The best way to describe it and from our end is that every time we play the [New York] Yankees and [Boston] Red Sox, you see those lineups and they're just prolific. And if something happens and we're not in a platoon, Shannon's a guy who can run out and hit right-handers."
Stewart, who hit .290 with 12 home runs and 48 runs batted in with the Oakland Athletics in 2007, signed a one-year contract worth $1.5-million (all figures U.S.) with a $250,000 bonus that will kick in if he makes 400 plate appearances. Johnson was under contract for $3.275-million, but his release means any team can sign him for the major league minimum ($390,000).
"We tried to keep the evaluation process as long as we could," Ricciardi said. "It also gave us an opportunity to let other teams see Shannon and Reed and see if there was an opportunity to make a deal. We figured going into the last week it would be nice to have our team that we think for the most part is going to be together."
Ricciardi said there was "a lot of interest in Reed and a lot of concern, too," even though Ricciardi said he'd told everybody that Johnson was healthy. Ricciardi said Johnson would likely "have his choice of where he wants to go and have an opportunity to play more than he might have here."
