Dan Johnson Hates Facing Knuckleball Pitchers, Now He’s Becoming One

By RaysRadio

The phrase goes, if you can’t beat them, join them. Dan Johnson certainly fits that category. As a hitter, Dan Johnson has two of the biggest homers in Rays history. One is the 2008 blast off Jonathan Paplebon that helped win a game against Boston at Fenway Park, and the other is the 2011 homer off former teammate Cory Wade that helped the Rays win game 162 against the Yankees.But what most don’t know about Johnson, who hit 57 homers in the majors, and 335 in his professional career, is that the 36-year-old couldn’t stand facing a knuckleball pitcher. In fact, if he wasn’t on Charlie Montoyo’s Durham lineup card when Charlie Haeger or Charlie Zink was on the mound in the Triple-A International League, it wouldn’t have been the worst thing in the world.

Johnson recalled being about 1-for-16 against those two pitchers, and his memory isn’t far off. He was 2-for-15 against the two Charlies, and sometimes, the disrupted timing from facing a knuckleball pitcher can linger for days when facing “normal” pitchers.

Now Johnson, will learn the art of becoming a knuckleball pitcher from Haeger, who was hired this past off-season as a Rays Minor League Pitching Coordinator. Johnson has always toyed with a knuckleball while playing catch, and has been considering this possibility for a while, but this off-season it became more serious.

We discussed his thought process, why he decided on doing this with the Rays, and what his wife Holly thought when he decided to follow this new career path:

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Johhson played last year in the field for Memphis and Louisville at the Triple-A level, batting .245 with 15 HR and 64 RBI, and played in 12 MLB games for St Louis, going 3-for-19 with 2 RBI.