Yanks Sign Nick Johnson
December 20th, 2009 | by Craig Williams |
It looks like Johnny Damon’s days in Yankee pinstripes have come to an end. The Yankees signed Nick Johnson, 31, to a 1-year deal worth $5.5 million with a mutual option for 2011 and, by doing so, have addressed the hole at DH. There is some good and bad to this. The bad is that we’re going to have to play Melky in LF every day – not awful but, on the days that Posada doesn’t catch, we’re going to be stuck with him and Franky Cervelli in the bottom of the order as opposed to letting Posada and Damon share DH time. Also, as we know, Nick Johnson has a very long injury history. Hopefully, DHing and only a little 1B here and there will allow Johnson to stay healthy. The good is that Johnson fits in nicely with our grind-it-out, high OBP type of offense and could fit very nicely into the number two slot in our lineup. His power leaves a little to be desired but he has a .402 career OBP and hopefully the short porch could help Johnson increase his slugging a little bit.
1. Jeter, SS
2. Johnson, DH
3. Teixeira, 1B
4. Rodriguez, 3B
5. Posada, C
6. Granderson, CF
7. Cano, 2B
8. Swisher, RF
9. Cabrera, LF
That is just a rough look at how our lineup could look. Girardi will mix and match depending on matchups but either way, it still looks like a lineup that can cause problems in the AL East. By the way, Johnson had more lucrative offers on the table but took a discount to come back to the Bronx. It’s nice to see players let their desires play an integral role in their decisions instead of just blindly following the money.
