Johnson Hopes for a Major Step Forward

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla., March 18 -- Just past 8 a.m. in the Baltimore Orioles' spring training clubhouse on Tuesday, Jim Johnson carried a Styrofoam bowl of oatmeal and a peanut butter-covered bagel to his locker and placed it on an inside shelf. He slid into a chair and spread out the morning paper in front of his breakfast, hunkering down over the arrangement with all the contentment of a man at his own kitchen table.

Johnson wishes he could settle so comfortably in the Orioles' rotation. Or bullpen. Or anywhere on the big league roster. Now seven years removed from his heady high school days, when he learned hours before leading his team to victory in a New York state high school playoff game that the Orioles had selected him in the fifth round of the 2001 draft, Johnson still is waiting for the opportunity he once thought was right around the corner.

"It's been a long haul," he said before Tuesday's 4-2 loss to the Minnesota Twins. "It's definitely been a long time."

Some guys his age -- 24 -- have accrued years of major league service. He has eight days. In two big league outings, he has pitched five innings. But this is the exasperating part: He's allowed 12 hits, 10 runs and 5 walks. But Johnson at least is here, sitting under the No. 64 nameplate, dipping into lukewarm oatmeal with a plastic spoon and hoping the best is yet to come. Asked to pinpoint the highlight to date of his pro career, he looked stumped.

"Maybe I'm still waiting for that," he said after a moment. "Maybe it will happen this year."

This week, at least, holds some promise. Orioles Manager Dave Trembley on Tuesday offered the perhaps surprising assessment that Johnson remained a candidate for the fifth spot in the rotation and will get a long look Sunday in Fort Myers against the Twins. Given the logjam of competition there and the fact that Johnson hasn't yet had a spring start -- he's pitched 6 1/3 innings in relief, posting a 2.84 ERA -- that seems unlikely.

But the big league bullpen? Perhaps. If not this spring, at least, Johnson hopes a call will come this summer.

After pitching in the Arizona Fall League, Johnson got married to a woman he had met in Annapolis while playing rookie ball, then settled in the same Sarasota, Fla., neighborhood as Orioles minor league pitching coordinator Dave Schmidt.

That proved convenient. Johnson and Schmidt worked together almost daily. Among the winter's projects: Johnson extended the stride in his pitching motion. At 6 feet 5 and 245 pounds, he seemed to be caught off-balance at times by his relatively short stride.

"At the end [of the winter], he asked me what I expect," Johnson said. "I expect to contribute at the major league level. That's what my mind-set is. I don't want to be here, just a guy who is a warm body."

From the start of his career, things moved slower than Johnson expected. He spent three seasons in rookie ball. It took a breakthrough season to catapult him, finally, out of Class A. He compiled a 12-9 record and 3.49 ERA at Frederick in 2005. That year, he was named Carolina League Pitcher of the Year. He also won the Jim Palmer Prize, given to the top pitcher in the Orioles' farm system.

"Up until that year, I didn't really feel I was one of the guys," he said. "I felt like I was stuck behind so many people. That year, it seemed like things snowballed and I ended up finding myself."

The next summer, he was added to the team's 40-man roster and got his first major-league call-up, a frustrating venture in which he started one game against the Chicago White Sox, allowed 13 base runners in three innings, got the loss and was sent down the next day. Still it was progress. He spent most of last season at Class AAA, with two similarly brief stints in Baltimore.

"He's probably been kind of a forgotten guy somewhat, but he's a real hard worker," Trembley said. "He's really improved his delivery. . . . He's made a lot of progress."

The next step, Johnson hopes, will be to . . . nowhere. As pitchers get handed airplane tickets to various minor league stops, Johnson hopes to stay right here. Hayden Penn, an early candidate for the fifth starter's slot, was optioned to Class AAA Norfolk last week. Garrett Olson, another candidate, was optioned Tuesday.

"I think I can help the team win games," Johnson said. "It's been a long time, and I feel like my time is now."