Turns out our hunches were correct. After the game tonight, Jeremy Hellickson was demoted back down to Triple-A and in his stead, Dan Johnson was called up to the Rays. That's right: Dan Johnson is free!
Dan Johnson is a man of contradictions. He hit the biggest homerun in the history of our franchise, yet he's only hit 44 homeruns at the major league level. He has a career major league slash line of .248/.343/.420 (.763 OPS, .333 wOBA), but he's mashing this season down in Durham to the tune of .297/.427/.602 (1.029 OPS, .433 wOBA). He's first in the International League in homeruns (30), and close to breaking the Durham single-season homerun record. Who is this guy? Is he an average bench player or should we be expecting great things from him?
We'll have more detailed analysis of Dan Johnson and what to expect from him tomorrow, so stay tuned.