Daniel Johnson hasn’t rounded third base at Oracle Park yet, but the Bethel High School graduate is coming home.
The San Francisco Giants on Wednesday selected the contract of Johnson from the Sacramento River Cats. Johnson previously played with the Cleveland Guardians in 2020 and 2021 and the Baltimore Orioles this season, going hitless in his lone at-bat.
Cleveland Indians right fielder Daniel Johnson of Vallejo is congratulated by teammates Saturday after scoring a run on sacrifice fly ball by Amed Rosario during the fifth inning. (Tony Avelar-Associated Press)
Johnson was signed by the Giants to a minor league contract on May 2.
The Giants were scheduled to play the Padres on Wednesday night at Oracle Park. Johnson has hit .272 with six homers in 26 games with Sacramento.
Johnson has four career home runs and a batting average of .200 with 18 career hits in 90 at bats.
The former Bethel star couldn’t be reached before the Times-Herald went to press on Wednesday afternoon.
How much time Johnson sees with the Giants is unknown, but the former Jaguar has a good track record in the Bay Area. In June of 2019 he hit his first Major League Baseball home run against the Oakland A’s, going 2-for-4 at what was then called RingCentral Coliseum — the same venue he used to watch games as a kid. A handful of family and friends that were in the stands that day.
After Johnson hit his first career dinger against Chris Bassitt in the seventh, he crossed home plate and pointed with both hands to his own personal cheering section.
“It was cool moment, to get that first one ever (homer) out of the way,” he told the Times-Herald after the game. “I pointed to my family after I crossed home plate and it was a cool feeling for everyone involved.”
Johnson first made a name for himself in 2013, the year he graduated from Jesse Bethel. That season, his only one spent at the varsity level, he helped the Jaguars make the playoffs for the first time in the program’s history and get a first-round win against McClatchy. In that game played at American River College in Sacramento, Johnson went 4-for-5 with two doubles, four RBI and two steals.
“When he’s at the plate, I do look back at how he was when he played at Bethel,” Johnson’s former coach at Bethel, Damien Neves said in 2019. “He’s so much stronger now but he still basically has the same build. I try to keep track of how he’s doing, where he’s playing.”
Originally Published: June 4, 2025 at 4:06 PM PDT