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Roger Mooney

Roger Mooney covers the Tampa Bay Rays for The Tampa Tribune, TBO.com and News Channel 8. He has covered the Rays since their first season in 1998, including 11 years for the Bradenton Herald. Roger has also covered Florida, South Florida and Florida State football, the Bucs and the Lightning.

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Fox Sports reporting Rays have signed FA 2B Kelly Johnson

Posted Jan 28, 2013 by Roger Mooney

Updated Jan 28, 2013 at 03:45 PM

ROGER MOONEY
ST. PETERSBURG The Tampa Bay Rays have yet to confirm a report earlier today by Fox Sports that they have signed free agent second baseman Kelly Johnson to a one-year contract.

It is the Rays policy not to comment on any trades or signings until the transaction is complete.

The team would have to clear a spot on the 40-man roster for Johnson, as well as spots for relief pitcher Kyle Farnsworth and designated hitter Luke Scott. both agreed to terms last week on one-year deals.

Johnson, 30, has played second base for most of his seven major league seasons. He did play 79 games in left field in 2005 while with the Atlanta Braves.

The left-handed hitting Johnson is a career .255 hitter with a .338 career on-base percentage and a .429 career slugging percentage. Those numbers were .225/.313/.365 last season for the Toronto Blue Jays when he struck out 159 times in 507 at-bats. (Johnson’s career stats: http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/j/johnske05.shtml.)

Johnson does have some power. He hit 16 home runs last season and 21 in 2011, when he split the year between Arizona and Toronto.