1:27PM: Davis will earn $1.25MM if he reaches the majors, and the contract contains an out clause, FanRag Sports’ Jon Heyman tweets.
8:03AM: The Dodgers have agreed to sign first baseman Ike Davis to a minor league contract, Baseball America’s Matt Eddy reports (via Twitter). Davis has been on the open market since being released by the Yankees last August.
Davis, 29, appeared in just eight major league games in 2016, spending much of his season at the Triple-A level with the Yankees’ and Rangers’ top minor league affiliates. The left-handed hitting Davis has a solid career slash line (.251/.351/.441) against right-handed pitching over his career, though even those numbers were on the decline over the last two seasons as Davis struggled to retain a big league job. After an impressive start to his MLB career as the Mets’ regular first baseman, Davis has hit just .222/.327/.354 over 1058 PA since the start of the 2013 season, bouncing from the Mets to the Pirates to the A’s and last year’s brief stint with the Yankees.
The signing gives L.A. some veteran first base depth for the minors. Adrian Gonzalez is entrenched at first base for the Dodgers, with Darin Ruf (a right-handed bat to better complement the lefty-swinging Gonzalez) slated as the backup at first.
Scott Van Slyke will compete with Ruf as the backup at 1b and OF — SVS a better defender all around than Ruf I believe has the edge, but ST will determine who makes the 25 man roster.
SVS is like Kiké, horrible bats. Keep them out of the 25 man please
Could just be insurance if theirs an Imjured to AGON.
1st base was the only place the Dodgers lacked depth. One could argue that they didn’t have depth at 2nd but they do but they didn’t feel confident in them starting. So they just built up some depth and who knows Davis could end up beating out Ruf for the backup spot anyways
Not going to beat out Scott Van Slyke who can backup 1b and OF. Hope Davis likes OKC as that is the only place he is going to play for Dodgers unless Agon goes down with injury and Dodgers do not want to rush Bellinger.
I would not be so high on van slyke. All 3 of them have low batting averages but at least ike has some pop in his bat
I like Ike.
So is the Dodgers’ roster strategy now called Operation Overlord?
Hahaha
Hahahaha
Excellent.
It does seem odd that a team with so many resources doesn’t really have a first base option if AGon continues his decline. Van Slyke is just a platoon guy and Davis is just a replacement level player or worse at this point. I suppose they think Bellinger will be ready sooner than later.
You can’t have a perfect plan for every position.
Gonzalez has not had any decline yet. The home runs went down in 2016 but his batting average was his 2nd best out of 4 full seasons in LA
He’s clearly declining. 112 wRC last year as opposed to his career average of 130. His walk rate was lower than his career average, his k% was higher than his career average. Lowest ISO of his career last year, and had the worst defense of his dodger career. Plus his batting avg/obp look to take a decent hit, as his babip was 30 points higher than in 2013/2014
Wow just more analytic garbage. There are so many stats out there that makes it impossible to be good in every one. All I know is i see adrian play 150 games a year get big hits and give above average production and good defense. When he really goes into major decline bellinger will be ready so there is no issue. I see every game this team plays , and someone who just went on baseball refrence isnt going to convince me adrian is on a huge decline. Take your “ISO” somewhere else
“I don’t like facts so they don’t matter.” Sigh. I guess this is Trump’s America after all.
He definitely had a down year on the power production side. Too early to call it a trend, but when a power hitter gets to their mid-30s and you see that, the possibility of decline setting in can’t be totally ignored.
They arent facts. When you look at normal stats adrian has been consistent his entire dodger career. I am not denying he will decline but saying he did in 2016 is atrocious and an insult if coming from someone who doesent see him play
What are the “normal stats”? Who said his 2016 was atrocious? It’s clear he declined just as it’s clear that he’s still at least average or slightly above for his position.
Come on man we all know wrc+ , k%, iso and babip arent how we judge ball players. Those are all advanced metrics that arent deal breakers
Your argument was made invalid the moment you typed “analytic garbage”. Educate yourself and learn how teams evaluate players in the game today. (Btw, he declined even in the view of “normal stats”
.286 with 18 HR and 90 RBI are a far cry from his earlier seasons)
Oh boo hoo a 34 year old only hit 286 and drove in 90 runs. He must be on the way down according to your garbage analytical stats. The plan is for adrian to start 1 nore year til bellinger takes over and to think he is going to decline that much is insane. I guarantee any of the 4 stats you named are not the first things a front office judges a player on. Watch the games buddy mabey you will learn something. You cant baseball refrence me, not about my dodgers
When a power hitter declines in 2016 in terms of power that’s a pretty good sign he’s in trouble. 2016 was the year of the home run.
If you think the Dodgers front office doesn’t believe in advanced stats and analytics you’re delusional. LA probably has the biggest analytics department in baseball.
^^^^ this.
Lol and they’ll evaluate a player based on RBI? What’s next? They evaluate a pitcher based on wins?
If home runs really matter that much then why is chris carter and mike napoli struggling so much to find work. As long as gonzalez hits .285 he is fine. Hes not going to hit 30 bombs anymore but that doesn’t mean he is not productive
The reason why Chris Carter and Napoli don’t have jobs is because their only tools are power
I was batting (terribly) in preseason training in England today, and I really don’t think that what I did was different with men on base or not. However, if there’s some magic power that I need to ‘drive runs in’, then let me know. Otherwise, I’ll stick with the pointyheads and try to understand the bits that players control as I play and coach at Northants. When you’ve got all the info available as we do in pro baseball, only an idiot would choose not to use it.
Maybe they are “Alternative Facts.”
Maybe the Dodgers minor league hitting coaches can help Ike get his swing back. He was a pretty decent hitter and then just seemed to lose hit. Nice depth piece. Also, both Ruf
Davis’ problems seemed to be of the off-field variety. In New York he was pretty well-known to love the night life. Perhaps he’s settled down at this point and can get back to having a career.
Actually, Davis contracted Valley Fever in 2012, suffered with it through 2013, and his game never really recovered afterwards. Maybe…….just maybe, he’s fully recovered and will be able to serve as another backup to A-Gon.
The weird thing is……A-Gon is under contract through 2018, and the word is that Bellinger will be ready way before that (if not this Spring)…….so I’m confused why the Dodgers would need “2 backup 1B’s” in Ruf & Davis. I guess if he goes down (or gets traded) they’d have both sides of a platoon covered….????
Hmmmm…………still………..weird
Thats actually not true. The reason why his career hasnt gone to plan has been due to injuries.
Yeah. I’m guessing if you burn the candle at both ends you’re more likely to get injured.
Thats fine if you dont buy it. You do realize that ballplayers in their offtime do go out and drink right? Even in the reg season.
His case has always struck me as a what if, I think if he didnt deal w the surgeries hes had to undergo, that he would have been a solid player.
Enjoy him. As a Mets fan, I laugh every time I see him pop up somewhere haha.
The only solace I take is that I can’t even remember what the Pirates dealt away for Davis.
Nothing for nothing, I think.
Pirate fan here. Ike didn’t pop out. He grounded to second. Haha
I’m not sure what the Dodgers are doing with this move. Davis has been terrible and I don’t think they need him at AAA. If the Yankees couldn’t use him, I’m thinking he’s toast.
I like Ike Davis as a player,. This does appear to be a depth move if AGon goes on the DL (platoon of Davis, Ruf and SVS), but what I don’t understand is why we need Davis. I was hoping if AGon went down we would platoon Bellinger against righties. I guess they want to give Cody more ABs in the minors against both righties and south paws.
This is for a MiLB contract; is like to see the terms of it.
If retained, is this another contract/player that could potentially be added within a trade scenario?
I agree; depth in the event of an injury, or if AG needs rest or short term injury visit
Maybe they can get Pedro Alvarez and Gaby Sanchez, too.
It’s quite the 3 headed monster of 1B awesomeness.
So great you’ll want to go out and get John Jaso.
Bahahahaha
People tend to read to much into minor league signing sometimes. Davis will play in AAA. It allows Bellinger to play both corners. Not really much else to it. Ruf is out of options so he’s probably slated for the roster. SVS has to prove he’s healthy and has options. This 40 man is really crowded right now but can be cleared up pretty quickly. The first move will be Garcia to the 60 day.
Bellinger can’t play third base. He’s left-handed
Im interested in seeing what the dodgers could get for A-Gon, they should trade for Profar and move logan to 1st.
Why waste Forsyth at first? That makes no sense.
Not a waste if they get profar or another 2nd baseman, just thinking what prospects they could get for Gonzo thats all.
Move Van Slyke and Enrique Hernandez for another quality reliever or back-up catcher
Giving up on Barnes already? SVS and Kike are pretty sell low right now. Maybe at the trade deadline?
Not giving up on Barnes at all – consider him the future catcher – just think a catcher improves by playing ( even at AAA) rather than sitting and if Grandal’s healthy, he would start 140 games
Barnes is only a year younger than Grandal. I’d say Grandal is the present and future catcher.
Who the heck would want either? Let alone get anything valuable for them? lol both of em are garbage at the plate
Hope Ike likes OKC…he should buy, not rent.
Should sign Mike Napoli….use Mike and Ike at 1st in a platoon and trade Gonzalez and Puig to Brewers for Braun and Nelson….
This would allow guys such as McCarthy and Wood to pitch from pen and not be needed in the rotation because of injuries they would be pitching 75-100 innings not 200 plus as starters plus I like Mike and Ike’s….lol
Dodgers usually get players like Ike as trade bait for other moves some lower tier team low As, padres etc they usually jumps on it to keep payroll down. As they unload their upcoming star.