Ex-Rays slugger Dan Johnson signs minor-league White Sox deal

Dan Johnson, whose two-out, two-strike, ninth-inning home run on the final night of the regular season helped save the Tampa Bay Rays season, signed a minor-league contract Tuesday with the Chicago White Sox.

The deal comes with an invitation to spring training.

Johnson, who declined a Rays assignment to Triple-A Durham in October, feels he can make the White Sox Opening Day lineup. The key will be proving the wrist injury that hampered him last season and let to his May demotion to Durham is no longer an issue.

"I have to take it day by day, but that's the plan," Johnson said. "You don't play this game to shoot low. I'm going in there shooting for the stars."

Johnson hit two home runs for the Rays in 2011. The first, against the White Sox in Chicago, was a three-run shot that capped a ninth-inning comeback and gave the Rays their first victory of the season.

The second came during the wild regular-season finale against the Yankees, a solo shot just inside the right- field foul pole that completed a Rays comeback from a 7-0 deficit and set up Evan Longoria's game-winning home run in the 12th inning.

The 8-7 victory, coupled with the Red Sox's ninth-inning loss in Baltimore that evening, clinched the American League wild card for Tampa Bay. The Rays had trailed the Red Sox by nine games in the wild-card standings in early September.

Johnson's agent, Bobby Barad, said the Rays were one of several teams that expressed an interest in Johnson throughout the offseason.

"I guess they decided to go in a different direction," Johnson said.

Johnson began 2011 as the Opening Day first baseman but lost the job to Casey Kotchman after hitting .115 in his first 25 games. Johnson said his offensive struggles were due to nerve damage in his right wrist, the result of being struck with a pitch during a mid-April game against the Minnesota Twins. The injury prevented Johnson from doing anything more than slap at the ball.

Johnson's swing gradually came back during his summer with Durham, where he hit .273 with 13 home runs.

Recalled by Tampa Bay on Sept. 13, Johnson was hitless in his previous 21 at-bats with the Rays, a stretch that dated to April 27.

Johnson hit 11 home runs during his Rays career, seven of which either tied the score or gave the Rays a lead. Eight of those home runs came against the Red Sox and the Yankees.

Until his final home run with the Rays, Johnson was best remembered for his first at-bat with the team. It came on Sept. 9, 2008, in Boston when he faced closer Jonathan Papelbon in the ninth inning.

With the Rays down a run and clinging to a half-game lead over the second-place Red Sox in the AL East, Johnson homered to tie the score and spark a ninth-inning, game-winning rally.

"There's a lot of memories there," Johnson said of playing in Tampa Bay.

While he was surprised to be designated for assignment after the end of the 2011 season, Johnson said he does not harbor any ill feelings toward the Rays.

"It's a business," he said. "Obviously, I had some great times with them, but that's how it worked out."