Music: {allcanada} 'Disappointed' Johnson open to Blue Jays return

Monday, November 4, 2013

{allcanada} 'Disappointed' Johnson open to Blue Jays return

Britney Jean (Deluxe Version) - Britney Spears

The Toronto Blue Jays will not extend right-hander Josh Johnson a qualifying offer by Monday's deadline.

The Blue Jays can still sign Johnson, but the 29 other MLB teams can also bid for his services once free agency begins in earnest Tuesday. By not extending the $14.1 million qualifying offer, they will no longer be eligible to obtain compensation should Johnson sign elsewhere.

The Blue Jays likely felt that they could not justify the financial commitment for a player coming off of a poor year and surgery, and did not believe there was enough value to justify the risk.

"I guess I'm not really too surprised with the way everything went down last year and how I pitched whenever I was out there," Johnson told sportsnet.ca. "It's tough to be there for only one year and to have that bad of a year, it's disappointing. Now I get thrown into free agency and get to experience it a little bit and see what it's about. Excited, but still a little disappointed in how last year went."

Johnson did not rule out a return to Toronto, but said it was too soon to predict what might happen.

"I don't know," he said. "My agent (Matt Sosnick) thinks about these things all the time, me, I told him I'm going to wait to see what the Blue Jays do and then we'll start thinking about what the next step is. Now it's time to talk about the next step and where we go from here, and we'll see which teams call and everything like that."

Under normal circumstances qualifying Johnson would have been a no-brainer, but after a miserable and injury-marred season that included two stints on the disabled list and a 2-8 record with a 6.20 earned-run average in 16 starts, the decision became far more complicated.

Matt Sosnick, Johnson's agent, said Friday that his client is pain-free after undergoing surgery to remove a bone spur and loose bodies from his elbow last month.

Teams that extend their own free agents a qualifying offer of $14.1 million – the average of the top 125 salaries in baseball – are entitled to draft-pick compensation if the player signs elsewhere.

The Marshall Mathers LP2 - Eminem