Tacoma Rainiers
Following a breakout season, Seattle Mariners General Manager Bill Bavasi promoted Johnson to the Triple-A level Tacoma Rainiers at the start of the . After the free agent signing of Japanese baseball star catcher Kenji Johjima and the selection of USC slugging catcher Jeff Clement, Johnson moved down the Mariners organizational depth chart. In , he was named the Tacoma Rainiers team captain.