Cleveland Indians: Three Non-Roster Invitees with best chance to make Opening Day roster

After a year in Japan, 31-year-old left-handed reliever D.J. Johnson is back in the states as he signed on as a non-roster invitee with the Indians.

Johnson spent minor league stints with the Rays, Diamondbacks, Twins and Angels before finally reaching the majors with the Colorado Rockies in 2018.

There, he made seven regular season appearances pitching to a 4.26 ERA and posting a 1-0 record. He also pitched a 0.2 of a postseason inning for Colorado in which he struck out two batters and did not allow a run.

More from Away Back Gone

• Cleveland Guardians: Terry Francona becomes meme in profanity-laced ejection
• Say goodbye to defensive shifts and hello to bigger bases, pitch clock in 2023
• Cleveland Guardians: Shane Bieber second-fastest to 800 strikeouts in major-league history
• The next week will make or break the Cleveland Guardians’ season
• The Cleveland Guardians offense is suddenly inept

He went onto make the Rockies 2019 Opening Day Roster and made 28 relief appearances that season, posting a 5.04 ERA.

While his career numbers are less than impressive, he would bring some MLB experience to what is expected to be a relatively young Indians bullpen and also help make up for the loss of left-handed closer Brad Hand by adding an experienced southpaw to the bullpen.