Johnson Ready To Prove Himself In L.A.
LOS ANGELES—Micah Johnson has a simple philosophy.
“It’s beyond my paygrade to be a GM yet,” the 25-year-old second baseman said in January. “I’ve still got a couple years of playing before I worry about the GM moves. So I don’t think about it. I just play.”
That’s a good thing—because a lot has seemed out of Johnson’s control lately.
The former Indiana Hoosier, who turned 25 in December, went to camp with the White Sox last spring and won the job as their primary second baseman, making his major league debut as the starter there on Opening Day.
By mid-May, Johnson was hitting .270 with a .333 on-base percentage, but his defense was deemed too unreliable and he was sent back to Triple-A. He returned to the White Sox as a September callup. But by then his left knee was bothering him and he played in just nine games. He had arthroscopic surgery to remove scar tissue in October.
“I don’t know. It just didn’t pan out,” Johnson said of his season with the White Sox. “I have no regrets about my time there. , . . I’d take .270 every year if I could hit that .270 in the big leagues.”
The Dodgers would probably be happy with that. They acquired Johnson as part of a three-team swap in December that landed third baseman Todd Frazier in Chicago and brought three prospects (Johnson, outfielder Trayce Thompson and righthander Frankie Montas) to the Dodgers.
Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman called Johnson “a high-end athlete” and “plus-plus runner.” There seemed to be an opening for Johnson to win at least a share of the second base job.
Then the Dodgers re-signed veterans Chase Utley and Howie Kendrick. Johnson will likely find himself back in Triple-A again in 2016, waiting for an opening.
“I have to go perform, and that’s what I want to do,” Johnson said. “Whatever opportunities I get—I know Howie and Chase, they’re going to get their reps. When I get mine, I don’t have the luxury of sitting around.”
L.A. CONFIDENTIAL
• Former Dodgers farmhand Luis Mateo was suspended 50 games for testing positive for amphetamines. Mateo, 25, split time between Double-A and Triple-A in 2015.
• The Dodgers re-signed righthander Brandon Beachy then outrighted him to their Triple-A roster. Beachy, 29, made it back from a second Tommy John surgery to make two starts for the Dodgers last July, but he was ineffective and spent most of the season in the minors.
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