Joel Raymond Johnston (born March 8, 1967, in West Chester, Pennsylvania) is a former

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relief pitcher In baseball and softball, a relief pitcher or reliever is a pitcher who enters the game after the starting pitcher is removed because of fatigue, ineffectiveness, injury, or ejection, or for other strategic reasons, such as inclement weat ...

. He played five seasons for the Pittsburgh Pirates, Kansas City Royals and

Boston Red Sox The Boston Red Sox are an American professional baseball team based in Boston. The Red Sox compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. Founded in as one of the American League's eigh ...

. He was , 220 pounds, and he also threw and batted right-handed. Johnston attended Marple Newtown High School and Penn State University.

Career

Johnston was drafted in the 3rd round of the 1988 amateur entry draft by the Royals. Less than 5 seasons later, on September 5, 1991, he made his major league debut at the age of 24. Perhaps his rookie season was his best season—in just over 22 innings, he gave up only one earned run for an

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of 0.40. He also

struck out In baseball or softball, a strikeout (or strike-out) occurs when a batter accumulates three strikes during a time at bat. It usually means that the batter is out. A strikeout is a statistic recorded for both pitchers and batters, and is denote ...

21 batters that year. According to '' Baseball America'', in 1992 Johnston was the Royals top prospect, and was also number 59 on ''Baseball Americas 1992 Top 100 Prospects list. After his promising rookie season, Johnston pitched in just 5 games in , posting an ERA of 13.50. After the season Johnston was traded to the Pirates with pitcher Dennis Moeller for second baseman

José Lind José Lind Salgado, nicknamed "Chico", (Born May 1, 1964) is a Puerto Rican former Major League Baseball (MLB) second baseman, and former manager of the Atlantic League's Bridgeport Bluefish. He is the cousin of Onix Concepción (another forme ...

, and he rebounded to an ERA of 3.38 in 33 games. However, after brief trials producing poor ERAs of 29.70 (1994) and 11.25 (1995), Johnston pitched his final major league game on May 12, 1995. In 1996, Johnston played in 18 games for the Tennessee Tomahawks of the Big South League, and in 1997 he played for the

Wei Chuan Dragons The Wei Chuan Dragons () are a professional baseball team in Taiwan's Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL) that originally existed between 1990 and 1999. In 2019, negotiations regarding the franchise's revival and return to the CPBL took ...

of the

Chinese Professional Baseball League The Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL; ) is the top-tier professional baseball league in Taiwan. The league was established in 1989 and played the first season in 1990. CPBL eventually absorbed the competing Taiwan Major League in 20 ...

, winning the

Taiwan Series Taiwan Series () is the championship series of the Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL). It is usually played in late October or early November, after the regular season. It was formerly known as the ''CPBL Seasonal Championship Series'' () ...

Personal

Johnston currently resides in Downingtown, Pennsylvania.

References

Sources

{{DEFAULTSORT:Johnston, Joel 1967 births Living people Pennsylvania State University alumni Pittsburgh Pirates players Kansas City Royals players Boston Red Sox players Major League Baseball pitchers Baseball players from Pennsylvania Penn State Nittany Lions baseball players Eugene Emeralds players Baseball City Royals players Memphis Chicks players Omaha Royals players Buffalo Bisons (minor league) players Syracuse Chiefs players Pawtucket Red Sox players Colorado Springs Sky Sox players Tennessee Tomahawks players Sportspeople from West Chester, Pennsylvania