Blue Jays Acquire Kelly Johnson, Ship Out Aaron Hill & J-Mac

Rejoice, Aaron Hill-haters: the Blue Jays have heard your call. The much maligned 2nd baseman was finally shipped out of town today in a waiver deal, along with super-utilityman John Macdonald, with both players headed off to join the Arizona Diamondbacks’ playoff race.

In return, the Blue Jays will get the D-Backs’ struggling 2B-man in Kelly Johnson, a player that, like Hill, probably isn’t going to help much this season. Just a year removed from a career-season at age 28, Johnson has been mired in a low BABIP-influenced struggle this year, hitting 18 home runs but little else, posting an ugly .209/.287 split over 114 games this season (sound familiar, anyone?). Johnson brings with him some consistent pop, with his MLB career ISO never been once below .150, and sitting at over .200 over the last two seasons. At the very worst, the Jays will receive a marginal upgrade over Hill this season in terms of power and fielding ability, with Johnson also showing a career walk rate of 10.7% over Hill’s 6.6%.

Good talent, for sure, but the former 1st rounder does not come without his own caveats, obviously. Most concerning is his strikeout rate, currently sitting at a career-high 27.9%, and has seen a 3-year increase from a much more manageable 15.6% before he was traded to the D-Backs in 2009. Arizona is currently 4th in the league in batter strikeouts, and lead that category over the last couple of years, so Johnson’s issue could be something related to a team hitting philosophy, not unlike Adam Lind and Aaron Hill’s issues were related to the same thing.

For Aaron Hill and John Macdonald, both players will get a chance to play some meaningful baseball in September for the first time in their careers, and in Hill’s case, he also gets a proverbial change of scenery that’s been much needed since May, more or less. There are certain parallels between Hill and Johnson’s careers, and I’m not about to write off Aaron Hill’s career at 29 years old either. The opportunity is there for him to hit in a better lineup, and you never know what the batting coaches will have in mind in terms of fixing Hill’s batting woes this season. John Macdonald will provide – as he’s done for years here – valuable defensive backup in the infield for the D-Backs in late innings. It’ll be nice to see him finally get a shot at the playoffs.

It’s a bit of a gamble for Arizona, but for the Jays’, it’s really a no-risk move, as all players are free agents after this season (unless Arizona picks up Hill’s options). The Jays will, at worst, end up with a type-B comp pick for Johnson’s services if he chooses to sign elsewhere, and will also get a look to see if they will want to re-up him at a reasonable price, as opposed to trying to make an off-season move. Johnny Mac will likely rejoin Toronto in the off-season – word is going around that he preferred to be traded to a contender if possible, and Alex Anthopoulous have honored the request.