notes
Johnson, son of Triple-A manager, signed
Brach’s arbitration hearing, the team’s last, up Thursday
Chris Johnson, 32, is a .275/.313/.404 career hitter over eight major league seasons with the Astros, Diamondbacks, Braves, Indians and Marlins. He played in 113 games for Miami last year, batting .222/.281/.319 with five home runs and 24 RBIs.
Johnson projects to be the starting third baseman for Norfolk, but he will have plenty of opportunity to play in Grapefruit League games this spring training as starting third baseman
Johnson signed a three-year, $23.5 million extension with the Braves in May 2014 and is still being paid $9 million this season, so if he makes the Orioles’ major league roster, the club would pay him the league minimum of $535,000. Now, he has the opportunity to revitalize his career with the Orioles, who recently shored up their organizational depth around the infield. Besides Johnson, the team signed second baseman
Ron Johnson, who has been a coach or manager for the past three decades, said he’s never been able to coach his son, even as a kid.
“I haven’t really been around the baseball environment with my son ever,” he said. “When he was playing high school, college, all this kind of stuff, I’ve always been working. From a personal manner, I think it’s really cool. … As far as the baseball stuff, he’s trying to get himself back on track and hopefully play well and do the things he needs to do to get back to the big leagues.”
Brach enjoyed the best season of his career last year, making his first All-Star Game and posting a 10-4 record with a 2.05 ERA over 79 innings. In his second season of arbitration-eligibility, Brach filed at $3.05 million and the Orioles countered at $2.525 million. He made $1.25 million last season in his first year of arbitration eligibility.
“I think at this point, I just kind of want to get it done with,” Brach said. “Obviously, it’s either going to be this or that, and at this point it really doesn’t matter. I’m lucky enough to play baseball and that’s honestly the way I look at it. It’s a good salary, regardless of what it is, and I just want it to be done with.”
In negotiating with players before the salary-exchange deadline, the Orioles said they were going to use a file-and-trial approach, meaning they prepared to go to arbitration, rather than continue to negotiate, with any cases unsettled at the deadline.
But the Orioles made another offer to catcher
Brach said there has been no negotiation with the Orioles since figures were exchanged.
“We heard that they talked to Caleb, and they obviously settled with Gausman,” Brach said. “So we thought something might happen but we haven’t heard from them since then, so I’m pretty sure we’ll just probably just go [to trial].”
“We find out Wednesday,” manager
“Now, he may get claimed. He doesn’t have a prior outright, so he’d be here Thursday if he cleared. So, we’ll see. I hope not, for our sake, and I hope so for his sake. Nothing would change here about the competition factor if he clears.”
The Orioles would likely bring minor leaguer
“[McDowell] mapped out exactly what we want him to do and not do,” Showalter said. “He’s not going to pitch an inning and go out and pitch another inning. It’s one up and one inning with X-number of days off in between, so he’s protected.
“We wanted to get that out there. Not that they wouldn’t protect him, but it’s good to get it on paper.”
The Orioles could still add another outfielder and supplement their pitching depth.
Duquette deadpanned that the club still had work to do, especially since Baseball Prospectus’ PECOTA projections picked the Orioles for a 73-89 record and last-place finish in the American League East.
“PECOTA picked us last again,” Duquette said. “I think this the sixth year they’ve picked us last, so I know we have more work to do. There’s no question about that.”
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