8:30 PM Eastern

The first order of business for the Blue Jays for the new year seems to be extending their 10-year streak of never going as far as a hearing room with an arbitration-eligible player.  I think the last player they actually took all the way to arbitration was Bill Risley – those were the days.

Reed Johnson was the first of seven to sign up, and it shows you just how sick the arbitration system is that he could get a raise after the year he had in 2007.  Johnson came into the season as the leadoff man and everyday LF, coming off the best year of his career, and had to have surgery to repair a herniated disc in his back after the season was less than a week old.  He was out until the all-star break, and was really a shadow of the player he was before when he did get back into the line-up, struggling to a final line of .236/.305/.320 with two homers, though he did hit .325/.381/.532 against lefties.

And he got a raise.  Not much of one, I’ll grant you, just a hair short of $200,000, but come on.  The right thing to do would have been a one-year deal at the same salary as last year, basically saying, “OK, Reed, we’ll give you a mulligan.  Let’s pretend 2007 never happened.”

Truth be told, I’m still a little surprised that the Jays didn’t non-tender Johnson when they said goodbye to Tosh Jowers last month.  Not that Reed isn’t a good player, and not that he isn’t someone you want on your team.  He is both those things, but $3 million is a lot of scratch, and he more than likely could have been had for quite a bit less if he’d been a free agent.  On the other hand, if you do non-tender, the chances are greater that someone ELSE winds up getting him for a lot less than $3 million, so I guess it’s the cost of doing business.

Let me be clear about one thing up front.  Many of you who have listened to me over the years may believe otherwise, but I am a big Reed Johnson fan.  I love the way he plays the game, I think he’s terrific defensively and a very good bat to have against left-handed pitching.  I have said many times that he’s the perfect 4th outfielder, and I continue to believe that.

There is a thought out there that Reed made some sort of leap in 2005, and that he established himself as an everyday player and great lead-off man by hitting .319/.390/.479, but let’s not get carried away.  Johnson had an incredible start to that year, as did a few Jays.  He was hitting .365/.451/.507 at the all-star break, and then reverted to the guy that he had been almost his entire career up to that point, going .283/.338/.457 the rest of the way.  Solid second-half numbers, to be sure, but just solid, and certainly not deserving of a spot at or near the top of the line-up.

Lifetime,  Reed has hit .267/.328/.383 against right-handed pitching, which is why it’s a terrific thing that the Jays are saying that, as of now, he’s in a strict platoon with Matt Stairs in left field.  Reed should start against lefties (hitting second behind lefty-killer John McDonald – OK, lets’ not get carried away, but I’d like to see Reed hitting 2 against lefties), and play defense for Stairs at the end of games in which the Jays are leading, and that’s it.

The other arb-eligibles are Gustavo Chacin, Scott Downs, Jason Frasor, Alex Rios, Marco Scutaro and Brian Tallet – expect them all to get done well before any scheduled hearings are set to begin.  Rios will probably get a multi-year deal, if the Jays don’t trade him for a good, young starting pitcher.

The Jays also signed three pitchers to minor-league deals with invites to Spring Training.  One of them, Lance Carter (Warlord of Mars – I don’t know why,but that always pops into my head when I hear his name), pitched in the All-Star Game in 2003, when he was the D-Rays’ closer.  Of course, Jack Armstrong started the All-Star Game in 1990, so we all know what an all-star selection means, but Carter did have a couple of  good seasons for T-Bay, combining to allow 191 baserunners in 159 1/3 innings over ’03 and ’04.  He had some issues keeping the ball in the park (24 HR) and hardly struck out anybody, though, so don’t think that he’ll contribute too much beyond providing some back-up for the Accardo-League-Frasor-Wolfe gang behind B.J. Ryan.  Oh, and he’s 33 and played in Japan last year.

The other of the trio who has big-league credentials is John Parrish, though those credentials aren’t especially strong (169 walks in 229 1/3 innings).  He was an ineffective situational lefty for the Orioles and Mariners last year (.293/.353/.403 vs LHB) after missing all of 2006 recovering from elbow surgery.  His hits allowed and strikeouts, career-wise, are very good, but he just can’t throw the ball over the plate – the walks are atrocious.  Parrish will compete with Tallet for that third lefty spot in the bullpen behind Ryan and Downs, but likely spend most of his time providing injury insurance at Syracuse.

Comments are always welcome, and the e-mail address is wilner590@hotmail.com

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