You can wrap result value into another language src block like this:

#+begin_src ruby :results code :wrap src shell
puts "echo 'hello'"
#+end_src

#+RESULTS:
#+begin_src shell
echo 'hello'
#+end_src

Same for JSON by changed `:wrap src shell` into `wrap json`. But you need the value is JSON.

I saw you mentioned want ob-sql support JSON return type. I guess it need to be implemented in ob-sql. Or you can use `:post` to convert result to JSON. Or use `advice-add` to add a function to convert result to JSON.

If you can get ob-sql to output data in tabular form (if it is not nested) you can do something like this:

#+name: tabular

#+BEGIN_SRC python :results value

d = [['type', 'test'], ['format', 'json']]

return d

#+END_SRC

#+RESULTS: tabular

| type   | test |

| format | json |

#+BEGIN_SRC emacs-lisp :var data=tabular :wrap json

(json-encode data)

#+END_SRC

#+RESULTS:

#+BEGIN_json

{"type":["test"],"format":["json"]}

#+END_json

If the data is nested, then you can see if there is a way to output a lisp readable string:

#+name: my-data

#+BEGIN_SRC python :results output

print('((type . test) (format . json))')

#+END_SRC

#+RESULTS: my-data

: ((type . test) (format . json))

#+BEGIN_SRC emacs-lisp :var data=my-data :wrap json

(json-encode (read data))

#+END_SRC

#+RESULTS:

#+BEGIN_json

{"type":"test","format":"json"}

#+END_json

John

-----------------------------------
Professor John Kitchin 
Doherty Hall A207F
Department of Chemical Engineering
Carnegie Mellon University
Pittsburgh, PA 15213
412-268-7803

@johnkitchin
http://kitchingroup.cheme.cmu.edu

On Wed, Mar 28, 2018 at 2:19 PM, <agzam.ibragimov@gmail.com> wrote:

Hmm, it works for emacs-lisp, however I specifically wanted to use it with ob-sql, and can't find a way.  

On Wed, Mar 28, 2018 at 2:05 PM John Kitchin <jkitchin@andrew.cmu.edu> wrote:

Does this do what you want:

#+BEGIN_SRC emacs-lisp :wrap json

(json-encode '((type . "text")))

#+END_SRC

#+RESULTS:

#+BEGIN_json

{"type":"text"}

#+END_json

John

-----------------------------------
Professor John Kitchin 
Doherty Hall A207F
Department of Chemical Engineering
Carnegie Mellon University
Pittsburgh, PA 15213
412-268-7803

@johnkitchin
http://kitchingroup.cheme.cmu.edu

On Wed, Mar 28, 2018 at 1:42 PM, Ag Ibragimov <agzam.ibragimov@gmail.com> wrote:

Sorry, I don't know the best medium to convey ideas and I'm afraid not
qualified (familiar with org-mode codebase) to submit a PR for this.
I wonder how difficult would be to
add the possibility to have babel src block results to be rendered as
json?
Basically a new result type https://orgmode.org/manual/results.html#results

Thank you.