Beleaguered Orioles first baseman Chris Davis entered Saturday without a hit in his previous 54 at-bats, the longest streak in major league history. But the former star’s nightmarish skid ended with a first-inning, two-run single off Boston’s Rick Porcello, giving Davis his first hit since Sept. 14, 2018. Davis later went on to collect two more hits and another pair of runs batted in during what wound up as a 9-5 victory for the Orioles. While Davis was one of Baltimore’s best players Saturday, he has delivered startlingly few valuable performances since 2016, the first season of a seven-year, $161MM contract that now looks like one of the worst investments in baseball history. Once a premier slugger, the 33-year-old Davis has slashed a hideous .198/.294/.388 (83 wRC+) with minus-0.8 fWAR since signing his current deal.
Davis appears to be a sunk cost for the rebuilding Orioles, who owe him roughly $108MM more and will pay him through 2037 because of deferrals, yet there’s no urgency on their part to get rid of him. Rookie general manager Mike Elias told Dan Connolly of The Athletic (subscription required) on Friday that the Orioles are “absolutely” planning to keeping Davis, adding that “he’s on this team and it’s no secret the fact that we have a large and long commitment to him, so our focus is going to be on getting the best performance out of him that we possibly can.” Elias went on to explain to Connolly that the Orioles, with the help of analytics guru Sig Mejdal and hitting coach Don Long, are “just going to do as much as we can incrementally to get him into a better place.”
More from the American League…
- The Indians have played this season without their top performer, shortstop Francisco Lindor, who’s on the mend from a calf sprain and a high left ankle sprain. Fortunately for the Tribe, it appears Lindor’s progressing toward a return. After running the bases the past two days, the 25-year-old will work out with the team Sunday, and he could embark on a Triple-A rehab assignment Monday, Mandy Bell of MLB.com reports. When Lindor went down in early February, the Indians surely knew finding a capable fill-in for the three-time All-Star would be a difficult task; however, they likely didn’t expect their shortstop situation to be this dire in his absence. Replacements Eric Stamets (minus-35 wRC+ in 40 plate appearances) and Max Moroff (minus-58 wRC+ in 23 PA) have stumbled to a league-worst minus-0.8 fWAR thus far.
- Twins third baseman Miguel Sano is slated to begin modified spring training in Fort Myers, Fla., during the middle of the upcoming week, Betsy Helfand of the St. Paul Pioneer Press tweets. Beyond that, the Twins are hoping Sano – who’s working back from a right Achilles injury – will begin a rehab assignment in early May, according to chief baseball officer Derek Falvey. The Sano-less Twins have primarily turned to $21MM free-agent pickup Marwin Gonzalez at the hot corner, but the former Astro’s season has gotten off to an inauspicious start.
If you’re drinking tonight, do a cheers to Chris Davis. Huge day for him and his teammates. I know the Orioles suck, and frankly, so has Davis for the better part of 3 years, but nobody deserves the run of bad luck he had. Hopefully for his sake, he can build on today.
Hear! Hear!
Why is drinking the poison alcohol necessary to do so? A tip of the hat would suffice as well.
Why is being a buzzkill necessary?
To be fair, thousands of people die from alcohol everyday. Personally, I prefer herbs over hops if you know what I mean.
Get over yourselves
Alcohol is far from poison if you know how to handle yourself lmao. Alcohol is more important for you body in terms of living longer than exercise is.
Sirsleepit is the proprietor of a drinking establishment.
Seriously? Hmmm, I’ve heard of drinking yourself to death, but never exercise yourself to death.
@bagofballs
Agreed. Promotions involving alcohol consumption aren’t necessary or good, especially when those drinking have to get behind the steering wheel.
There’s a bar giving out free drinks for his first hit haha
Yeah, they gave a list on NESN of all the Baltimore bars giving free drinks and a free shot of anything the day of his first hit.
Now that he has figured it out, he just needs to go 12 for 12 to pass the Mendoza Line.
Why should I feel bad for Davis? He’s making 161 million to play baseball
Yes, he’s a very rich man, but it’s gotta be hard to go through something like this. Being booed day in and day out by your home fans, you and your teammates being interviewed about it everyday. The guy is still a human being.
Sept 14 not 18
Davis has sucked, but you gotta feel for the guy. Not much the Orioles can do except try and help him find whatever he’s lost.
That would be adderall….
Way to go Crash Davis! The hits were bound to fall in eventually! It’s Algebra!
The real Krush Davis is leading baseball with 10 homers!
He’s on PEDS
wrong Chris Davis. Orioles one was the one on PEDs.
“Beyond that, the Twins are hoping Sano – who’s working back from a right Achilles injury – will begin a rehab assignment in early May, according to chief baseball officer Derek Falvey..”
It was publicized that Sano had a cut on his heel. NOW it is described as a right Achillies injury. What gives with that? I’d still bet we don’t see him with the Twinkies until after the All Star Break. What a “Tin Man”.
” The Sano-less Twins have primarily turned to $21MM free-agent pickup Marwin Gonzalez at the hot corner, but the former Astro’s season has gotten off to an inauspicious start”..
INAUSPICIOUS?? , at his cost and performance thus far, he’s proving to be an even bigger FLOP than Addison Reed.
Amd that’s the risk of signing free agents. But it’s only 13 games. There’s 149 to go…
Really? First of all the cost was a bargain for a Super Versatile World Series winning position player. If you did any research other than looking at hitting statistics, you would know he always starts slow. I am assuming you’d prefer giving Adrianza all the abs at 3b until Mr.Durability returns from his scratched heel? Or maybe El Tortugo can play two positions at once and continue to be mediocre defensively at them as well?
Isn’t it odd that the orioles shelled out huge money to Davis but wouldn’t for Machado?
You think they’re going to pay Davis and Machado?
Two completely different situations. Davis had led the league in HRs and was top 5 in the MVP voting. He was also a favorite of the owner. Machado had knee surgery early in his career, and when the team felt comfortable trying to sign him to a long term extension Manny was no longer interested.. They most certainly would have signed him to a huge contract but he didn’t want to stay in Baltimore.
Are you trying to claim Chris Davis had a better career than Manny before he signed his contract compared to manny before signed his? Because that would be one of the funniest things ever, Davis had a decent year and then a really good year and the Orioles gave him one of the dumbest contracts ever.
Davis should have gotten stoned before the game & everything would have just been fine.
No reason for the Orioles not to play him and try to get some production out of him. The team isn’t expecting to win more than 60 or so games this season so they can spend the time, lower the bar on expectations, and see if they can find some way to improve him. They have very little in the way of power prospects in the minors, so if they can get him to a 220/330/460 line he’d be a bonus to the lineup.
Plus hes a top defender but even last season he hit way under .200. I dont know whats to come. Tough situation.
Willians > Sano, Marwin, any other option the Twins have at 3B
FREE WILLIANS – LET HIM PLAY EVERY INNING!!!
problem is they need him at other positions too. its not like their C situation is dynamite for example.
Another sunk cost for the Orioles is the horrible Cobb contract.
Don’t forget Trumbo too!
Cobb will likely be better once he can have a full spring and a healthy season.
As a die hard Os fan, i have never giving up on Davis. Has always been one of my favorites. Seriously happy for him. I played baseball for 17 years and to go through something that he did is definitely not easy on a person. Hopefully he keeps the hits going.
What did he go through that was so awful? Did he beat cancer?