Joel Johnston

{{Infobox baseball biography

|name=Joel Johnston

|image=Joel Johnston - Eugene Emeralds - 1988.jpg

|caption=Johnson in 1988

|position=Pitcher

|bats=Right

|throws=Right

|birth_date={{Birth date and age|1967|3|8}}

|birth_place=West Chester, Pennsylvania, U.S.

|debutleague = MLB

|debutdate=September 5

|debutyear=1991

|debutteam=Kansas City Royals

|finalleague = MLB

|finaldate=May 12

|finalyear=1995

|finalteam=Boston Red Sox

|statleague = MLB

|stat1label=Win–loss record

|stat1value=3–5

|stat2label=Earned run average

|stat2value=4.31

|stat3label=Strikeouts

|stat3value=61

|teams=

Kansas City Royals ({{mlby|1991}}–{{mlby|1992}})
Pittsburgh Pirates ({{mlby|1993}}–{{mlby|1994}})
Boston Red Sox ({{mlby|1995}})
Wei Chuan Dragons ({{baseball year|1997}}

|highlights=

Taiwan Series champion (1997)

}}

Joel Raymond Johnston (born March 8, 1967) is a former Major League Baseball relief pitcher. He played five seasons for the Pittsburgh Pirates, Kansas City Royals and Boston Red Sox. He was {{height|ft=6|in=5}}, 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 ERA of 0.40. He also struck out 21 batters that year.

According to Baseball America, in 1992 Johnston was the Royals top prospect, and was also number 59 on Baseball America's 1992 Top 100 Prospects list.{{Citation needed|date=September 2010}}

After his promising rookie season, Johnston pitched in just 5 games in {{Baseball year|1992}}, posting an ERA of 13.50. After the season Johnston was traded to the Pirates with pitcher Dennis Moeller for second baseman José Lind, 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 of the Chinese Professional Baseball League, winning the Taiwan Series.{{Cite web|url=https://www.baseball-reference.com/register/player.fcgi?id=johnst001joe|title = Joel Johnston Minor, Independent & CPBL Leagues Statistics & History}}