The Toronto Blue Jays’ off-season makeover hasn’t gone according to plan. But that doesn’t mean that the 45-49 Blue Jays will trade prospective free agents such as Josh Johnson.
The Blue Jays are telling teams they have no interest in trading Johnson, Yahoo’s Jeff Passan and ESPN’s Jerry Crasnick reported Wednesday.
An American League general manager told Passan that the Blue Jays have considered offering Johnson a qualifying offer after the season.
Teams must extend qualifying offers to departing free agents in order to obtain draft pick compensation the following year. The value of the qualifying offer is re-calculated annually, and is expected to exceed $13 million this off-season.
If Johnson is traded, his new team would not be allowed to extend him a qualifying offer. Under that scenario, he would hit the open market without being tied to draft pick compensation — an advantage for a free agent.
Crasnick also reports that the Blue Jays could keep Johnson and make him a qualifying offer.
Some MLB executives told Passan that they can see why the Blue Jays would want to keep Johnson, whose contract expires after the season. However, others wonder if the Blue Jays are simply attempting to build leverage by saying the 29-year-old is unavailable.
It’s possible that the Blue Jays could trade Johnson in August. If his 5.16 ERA continues to rise, he could clear waivers and be moved after the July 31 non-waiver trade deadline.
Johnson has 67 strikeouts and 23 walks in 66.1 innings. However, he has allowed 76 hits and 10 home runs in 12 starts.
