Nick Johnson?

[Post Count Padder]

According to the Chicago Sun-Times, Cubs general manager Jim Hendry is focusing "on the likes" of free agent first baseman Nick Johnson this winter.

In other words, don't look for a big splash like Adam Dunn, or even the return of Derrek Lee. Johnson, 32, was limited to just 72 at-bats with the Yankees this season and underwent two surgeries on his right wrist. According to the report, there are indications that the Cubs could be interested if Johnson's medicals look good enough. He's a pretty big gamble, even with a low guarantee. Johnson might fit best as a DH in the American League at this point.

 

Well, this could be a disappointing offseason.

[JonJayCutler]

Why not just sign Dunn? I want no part of Johnson.

[jersey cubs fan]

Well, this could be a disappointing offseason.

 

Jim Hendry is still here so that is a virtual certainty.

[UMFan83]

Sweet so who is going to start at first the other 135 games?

[jersey cubs fan]

Sweet so who is going to start at first the other 135 games?

 

Nady?

 

Nick Johnson does at least have some upside, so if you are going to spend big somewhere else there is at least a logic to it.

[UMFan83]

Sweet so who is going to start at first the other 135 games?

 

Nady?

 

Nick Johnson does at least have some upside, so if you are going to spend big somewhere else there is at least a logic to it.

 

No, I agree. I'd love Nick Johnson if I was promised he could play at least 120 games. I've always been a big fan of him. The problem of course is that he's played only 195 games over the last 3 seasons, so averaging 65 games per season.

 

Also not sure what other position we're going to be spending big in if not 1B. Unless its like Lee or Crawford. Or maybe I'm thinking too big.

[soapy]

Hopefully they decide his medicals don't "look good enough". As far as I can tell, 1B is just about the only position where I can reasonably hope for the Cubs to make a big offensive upgrade. Nick Johnson is pretty damn risky for a team that already seems to be planning on a downgrade in RF.

 

It's only early November and I'm already depressed.

[Outshined_One]

Also not sure what other position we're going to be spending big in if not 1B. Unless its like Lee or Crawford. Or maybe I'm thinking too big.

 

If this team is seriously thinking about Nick Johnson for 1B, I don't think there will be any big spending in the offseason.

[Clem Fandango]

Maybe Hendry is obsessed with the success of the Giants and he's going for that scrappy, castaway roster of flunkies and exiles from other teams hoping we'll strike gold. Let's trade for John McDonald!

[davell]

Also not sure what other position we're going to be spending big in if not 1B. Unless its like Lee or Crawford. Or maybe I'm thinking too big.

 

If this team is seriously thinking about Nick Johnson for 1B, I don't think there will be any big spending in the offseason.

 

 

Bingo.

[Backtobanks]

Could Johnson/Nady be filler until Adrian Gonzalez becomes available?

[Cubs Fan Dan]

If the cubs are going to go for a 1 year deal I would go for Pena or Berkman. Johnson is too risky you have a better chance of needing a replacement than him being healthy. I still have a gut feeling the Cubs will be very busy in the trade market this offseason. Any chance of going cheap @ 1B trading byrd and then spending on Crawford or a top line pitcher?

[fromthestretch]

If the cubs are going to go for a 1 year deal I would go for Pena or Berkman. Johnson is too risky you have a better chance of needing a replacement than him being healthy. I still have a gut feeling the Cubs will be very busy in the trade market this offseason. Any chance of going cheap @ 1B trading byrd and then spending on Crawford or a top line pitcher?

 

My guess is that you're not going to be able to get Pena on a one-year deal. If Dunn leaves the Nationals, I wouldn't be surprised to see them offer Pena at least two years.

[Outshined_One]

Could Johnson/Nady be filler until Adrian Gonzalez becomes available?

 

MLB Batting Splits

 

Define "filler", since 1Bs hit .264/.350/.452/.802 in MLB last season. If you think Nady will get back to his career splits of being good against LHPs, then a platoon partner who can handle RHPs pretty well could give you reasonable production from 1B.

 

The problem with Nick Johnson is that his career splits trend more towards hitting LHPs well rather than RHPs. He hits both pretty well, but if you're bringing him in to hit RHPs, you'd be banking on him to play a lot of games. Would you want to take that chance?

[HossmanGT]

Is anyone else getting concerned that we have Derrek Lee, Ted Lilly, and Xavier Nady's salaries coming off the books and we may not even have the ownership support to go sign Adam Dunn to a 3/36 type of deal? I hope I'm wrong, but I don't think there's another "big splash" we're targeting to make in the offseason (ala Cliff Lee).

 

I believe when Ricketts said the team payroll will be slightly lower next season, he means a lot lower. Again, maybe I'm blowing things out of proportion but after spending marginal dollars in this past year's draft and now some curious articles regarding our ability to target free agents, I'm beginning to get concerned with the direction Ricketts is taking the team.

[SpongeWorthy]

Could Johnson/Nady be filler until Adrian Gonzalez becomes available?

 

Adrian Gonzalez is already available.

[davell]

Is anyone else getting concerned that we have Derrek Lee, Ted Lilly, and Xavier Nady's salaries coming off the books and we may not even have the ownership support to go sign Adam Dunn to a 3/36 type of deal? I hope I'm wrong, but I don't think there's another "big splash" we're targeting to make in the offseason (ala Cliff Lee).

 

I believe when Ricketts said the team payroll will be slightly lower next season, he means a lot lower. Again, maybe I'm blowing things out of proportion but after spending marginal dollars in this past year's draft and now some curious articles regarding our ability to target free agents, I'm beginning to get concerned with the direction Ricketts is taking the team.

 

 

I'm definitely one of the people concerned with how Ricketts did in year one, but honestly, our major league payroll won't be dropping too much in this upcoming season, if we add a Nick Johnson, a right handed reliever and a middling starting pitcher, which is what we've heard about, to date anyway. Our current payroll is around 119 after arb raises or so and we paid out 132 last year. It's just a matter of raises to different people. If we had kept Lee, Lilly, Theriot, etc, our payroll next season probably would be in the 145-150 range or so.

 

But, if you want to talk about direction of the team, I'm worried until I actually see them putting lots of money back into player development, which they've trumpeted doing, but have yet to show any signs of.

[SouthSideRyan]

If we add a middling starting pitcher I'm gonna be erik316 in a game thread mad

[davell]

If we add a middling starting pitcher I'm gonna be erik316 in a game thread mad

 

 

I don't want one either, but "acquiring starting pitcher depth" is something I've read alot about recently. I'd much rather let the youngsters battle it out for the last spot(or two)

[Clem Fandango]

If we had to get a middling starting pitcher, what kind of middling starting pitcher would we prefer? One who may almost assuredly get injured but might provide potentially high upside (Ben Sheets, Justin Duchscherer, Brandon Webb, etc) or one who will give you close to a full season of "meh" pitching (Kevin Millwood, Jake Westbrook, Noah Lowry, etc)

[J.R.]

This is BS.

[rawaction]

Nick Johnson is a really good baseball player. While he did only play 24 games this year and 38 in 2008, he did play 133 in 2009, with 130+ each in 06 and 07. Hopefully, you can get 110-125 games out of him. And if you do, you're going to get a guy that's going to be on base about 42% of the time.

 

Don't get rid of Kosuke, teach Ramirez how to play again, and a full year of DeWitt, and you got an offense that will get on base and score a lot more. Granted, Dunn will get on base a ton and hit for power in 160 games, but he will cost a lot more.

 

If the Cubs are going to go cheap, Nick Johnson wouldn't be a bad way to go.

[bhogg]

this is the kind of thing that pisses me off. Damnit, don't half ass it by signing a piece of garbage like Nick Johnson. Either sack up and buy talented players or take the next two or three years and get rid of the dead weight and do a complete rebuild.

 

Just commit one way or another. . . . . . the Cubs will never learn.

[SouthSideRyan]

this is the kind of thing that pisses me off. Damnit, don't half ass it by signing a piece of garbage like Nick Johnson. Either sack up and buy talented players or take the next two or three years and get rid of the dead weight and do a complete rebuild.

 

Just commit one way or another. . . . . . the Cubs will never learn.

 

How is signing Nick Johnson to a 1 year deal not getting rid of deadweight and doing a complete rebuild? Will you not be satisfied until Micah Hoffpauir OPSes 450 from 1B all season. This is [expletive] ridiculous.

[SweetZombieJesus]

 

Also not sure what other position we're going to be spending big in if not 1B. Unless its like Lee or Crawford. Or maybe I'm thinking too big.

 

i'd rather do this than spending 40 mill of cash on a first basemen who can't field.