Angels vs. A’s Gamethread

They’ll do that, but they’ll be tempted to promote him quickly as a reliever, because I think he could be of value there quite soon. Jansen-Joyce-Johnson is a compelling bullpen back end.

But in general, I completely agree with Longenhagen’s take on Johnson, down to the very-outside-chance he can put together a Tanner Houck starter path:

Perhaps the weirdest of all 2024 draft prospects….Why so weird? Johnson has a funky low-slot delivery that features big effort and a huge head whack. He doesn’t look like a typical big league starter, but he certainly performed like a starting pitching prospect in college.

Johnson uses an east/west attack and throws a ton of low-80s sliders. His fastball sits 92-94 with tailing action, and the horizontal divergence between Johnson’s fastball and slider was too much for college hitters to deal with. Johnson often changes the pace of his delivery to home, with frequent quick-pitches catching hitters off guard. At first glance, he looks like a deceptive long reliever, but let’s be mindful that guys like Tanner Houck have paved the way for pitchers with funkadelic low-slot deliveries like Johnson to develop and thrive as starters. Ideally, Johnson will develop a splitter or something else to fill out his mix and make him better able to tussle with lefties. His grade here leaves room for starter outcomes even though I think it’s unlikely.