Cubs resign Reed Johnson

The Cubs have resigned Reed Johnson to a 1 year, 1.15 million dollar deal. In 2011, he had a 1.3 WAR, and has a .63 WAR average over the last 3 years, which is worth about 1.9 million dollars. Defensively he is not very good, at a -.6 career D-WAR, -.1 in 2011. While his fielding percentage is above league average, he doesn't make many errors, he doesn't get to many balls either, with a well below average range factor. BaseballProjection says that he cost his team 4 runs more than an average fielder. Offensively, Johnson had a .348 OBP, 122 OPS +, and .130 ISO with a gigantic .394 BABIP. Obviously those statistics are pretty useless, as his 1.3 WAR is not something you can expect to repeat. That certainly taints the .63 WAR average over the last 3 years, as his 2009 and 2010 WARs were both .3. Over those two years, Johnson has an OPS + of 84, and OBP of just .309 with a BABIP of .310. These are pretty abysmal offensive numbers as evidenced by his 4 runs created per game and .426 offensive winning percentage in those two years. In his career, he has walked just 4.8% of the time, and is an under average extra base and home run hitter. Even at such a small low risk contract, the Johnson signing doesn't make a whole lot of sense. It would have been much better if they had been able to bring him back on a minor league deal.