Mark Landon Johnson (born September 12, 1975) is a former professional

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...

player, a

catcher Catcher is a position in baseball and softball. When a batter takes their turn to hit, the catcher crouches behind home plate, in front of the (home) umpire, and receives the ball from the pitcher. In addition to this primary duty, the catc ...

who played with several major league teams, but primarily with the

Chicago White Sox The Chicago White Sox are an American professional baseball team based in Chicago. The White Sox compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League Central, Central Division. The club plays its ...

. In 2011, he retired as a player and became a

minor league Minor leagues are professional sports leagues which are not regarded as the premier leagues in those sports. Minor league teams tend to play in smaller, less elaborate venues, often competing in smaller cities/markets. This term is used in Nort ...

manager. He is currently the catching coordinator for the

Chicago Cubs The Chicago Cubs are an American professional baseball team based in Chicago. The Cubs compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (baseball), National League (NL) National League Central, Central Division. Th ...

. He previously managed the Cubs Double-A affiliate Tennessee Smokies.

Amateur career

Johnson attended

Warner Robins High School Warner Robins High School is a high school in Warner Robins, Georgia, United States. It was established in 1944 and enrolls approximately 1,690 students. The mascot, the Demon, was originally adopted during World War II in honor of the 7th Fig ...

Warner Robins, Georgia Warner Robins (WRB; typically ) is a city in Houston County, Georgia, Houston and Peach County, Georgia, Peach Counties in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It is the state's Georgia (U.S. state)#Major cities, 11th-largest incorpo ...

. Johnson was drafted by the

26th overall in the 1994 draft.

Professional career

Chicago White Sox

In 1994, he hit only .241 in 32 games, and in , he hit .182 in 107 games. saw a slight improvement, at least while in Single-A. He hit .257 in 67 games there, but in Single-A Advanced ball that year, he hit only .241. Great at drawing walks, he walked 106 times and struck out only 85 times in , but he still only hit .252. In , he had a career year in the minors, batting .283 with 105 walks and only 72 strikeouts. On September 14, , he made his big league debut. He went 0-for-1 at the plate. The rest of his season he collected only two hits in 23

at bat In baseball, an at bat (AB) or time at bat is a batter's turn batting against a pitcher. An at bat is different from a plate appearance. A batter is credited with a plate appearance regardless of what happens upon completion of his turn at bat, ...

s, for a .087 batting average. Both of his hits were triples. His first one came off Pedro Martínez on September 19, and his second came off Scott Service on September 25. He spent his entire season with the White Sox, backing up Brook Fordyce. In 73 games that season, he hit .227 with four

home run In baseball, a home run (abbreviated HR) is scored when the Baseball (ball), ball is hit in such a way that the batting (baseball), batter is able to circle the bases and reach home plate safe (baseball), safely in one play without any error ( ...

s and 16 RBI. He hit .225 in , this time as the White Sox starting catcher. In 75 games, he hit three home runs with 23 RBI. In 2001, he spent 55 games in the minors. In the majors, he hit .249 with 10

sacrifice hit In baseball, a sacrifice bunt (also called a sacrifice hit) is a batter's act of deliberately bunting the ball, before there are two outs, in a manner that allows a baserunner to advance to another base. The batter is almost always put out, a ...

s-good for fourth most in the league. He hit only .209 in .

Oakland Athletics

On December 3, 2002, he was traded with Keith Foulke, Joe Valentine, and cash to the

Oakland Athletics The Oakland Athletics (frequently referred to as the Oakland A's) were an American Major League Baseball (MLB) team based in Oakland, California from 1968 to 2024. The Athletics were a member club of the American League (AL) American League We ...

for Billy Koch and two players to be named later (who would end up being Neal Cotts and minor leaguer Daylan Holt). He spent most of his season in the minors in , hitting only .228. In the thirteen games that he played in the Majors, his batting average was .111.

Milwaukee Brewers

After the 2003 season, he was granted free agency and signed by the

Milwaukee Brewers The Milwaukee Brewers are an American professional baseball team based in Milwaukee. The Brewers compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (baseball), National League (NL) National League Central, Central Di ...

. He spent most of his time in the minors that year, hitting .259. In his time in the Majors he collected only one hit in eleven at bats, for a .097 batting average.

Chicago Cubs

After , he was granted free-agency, but was re-signed by the Brewers, who then traded him to the

for Travis Ezi. He spent entirely in the minors, hitting .266 in 60 games. After the 2005 season, he was granted free agency and picked up by the Brewers again. He spent all of in the minors, hitting only .203 there.

Arizona Diamondbacks

On November 10, 2006, he signed with the

Arizona Diamondbacks The Arizona Diamondbacks are an American professional baseball team based in Phoenix, Arizona. The Diamondbacks compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) West Division. The franchise was established ...

and spent the entire year in the minors, with a .320 batting average.

St. Louis Cardinals

In December , he signed a minor league contract with the St Louis Cardinals and was invited to their

spring training Spring training, also called spring camp, is the preseason of the Summer Professional Baseball Leagues, such as Major League Baseball (MLB), and it is a series of practices and exhibition games preceding the start of the regular season. Spri ...

, but did not make the team. He was called up by the Cardinals in September , appearing in the majors for the first time in four years. One source describes him as this: "He has decent gap power, resulting in his share of doubles, as well as a good eye at the plate. Defensively, he calls a good game and gets the ball quickly down to second base." Although he has never quite lived up to the "gap power", he has shown a fairly good eye at the plate, with 123 walks and 195 strikeouts so far in his career. His defense is also reliable—his career fielding percentage is .993. That same source goes on to say this about him: "He has very little home run power and is a fairly light hitter on the whole -- even worse against southpaws." He has averaged just over two home runs a season in the Majors, and his statistics – .217 batting average with 16 home runs and 81 RBI so far in his career. In November 2009 Johnson was granted free agency from the

. On January 20, 2010, Johnson re-signed a minor league contract with the Cubs.

Minor league manager

In 2011, Johnson managed the Boise Hawks, the Cubs' affiliate in the Class A-Short Season

Northwest League The Northwest League is a Minor League Baseball league that operates in the Northwestern United States and Western Canada. A Class A Short Season league for most of its history, the league was promoted to High-A as part of Major League Baseba ...

. In 2013, Johnson was named manager of the Kane County Cougars, the Class A affiliate of the

. In 2015, Johnson was the manager of the Myrtle Beach Pelicans. He is currently manager of the Tennessee Smokies, an AA affiliate of the Cubs.

Personal life

On November 17, 2001, Mark married spouse Jamie Suzanne Webster, in Warner Robins, Georgia.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Johnson, Mark 1975 births Living people Sportspeople from Wheat Ridge, Colorado Baseball players from Colorado Chicago White Sox players Oakland Athletics players Milwaukee Brewers players St. Louis Cardinals players Major League Baseball catchers Sportspeople from Warner Robins, Georgia Minor league baseball managers Gulf Coast White Sox players Hickory Crawdads players South Bend Silver Hawks players Prince William Cannons players Winston-Salem Warthogs players Birmingham Barons players Charlotte Knights players Sacramento River Cats players Indianapolis Indians players Iowa Cubs players Nashville Sounds players Tucson Sidewinders players Memphis Redbirds players