Prior to Monday’s contest against the Tampa Bay Rays, the Red Sox announced that they’d granted lefthander Brian Johnson’s request for his release. Marooned at the team’s alternate training site in Pawtucket, Johnson concluded that he’d been buried on the depth chart.
“He just felt like he wanted an opportunity. Sometimes you need to go to other places to have a better opportunity, so he asked for his release,” explained Red Sox manager Ron Roenicke. “Although we would like to have him here for depth, that’s a decision that Brian wanted.”
Though he’d thrown well in the initial spring training and in the team’s July training camp, the writing had been on the wall for Johnson for some time.