Unowned
Daniel Johnson, OF
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Scouting report
Does it tell us anything about Johnson's prospects that Cleveland was not willing to give him an extended look in their outfield even though they had one of the least productive jardinero groups in baseball? Johnson will come to spring training poised to compete with Bradley Zimmer, Jake Bauers, Josh Naylor and perhaps Nolan Jones for corner outfield starts against right-handed pitching. He is as tooled-up as any of those players, so gifted that at various points during his minor league career, some scouts and front office personnel have projected him (he was drafted by Washington and traded for Jefry Rodriguez) as an everyday player. The loudest of those tools is Johnson's arm strength, followed by his speed and then, to a lesser extent, above-average raw power that manifests as doubles in games because his swing really only enables home run power to his pull side. Johnson has a career .284/.344/.460 line in the minors and has never produced a batting line below league average as a pro. So given the tools and performance, why isn't he higher on this list? I think big league arms will be able to pitch to him in a way that limits his power output below the corner outfield average and that Johnson's relative lack of defensive instincts make him more of a fit in right field than in center. At one point Johnson was so raw as a hitter that some scouts wanted to see him on the mound, leading me to I hope there would be late development in some of these areas, but now that Johnson is 25, I think he's likely to settle in as a platoon bat. (Alternate site, MLB)