The Rays have outrighted outfielder Johnny Davis to Triple-A Durham, reports Juan Toribio of MLB.com (link). As a player with fewer than three seasons of major league service time who has never been outrighted, Davis does not have the ability to reject his assignment.
This marks the latest chapter in the baseball odyssey of Davis, whom Bob Nightengale of USA Today profiled in a biographical piece back in September (link). After growing up in hard circumstances in South Central Los Angeles, Davis embarked on a six-season minor league career beginning with his selection as a 22nd-round pick of the Brewers in 2013. The speedy outfielder spent portions of 2018 in independent ball and the Mexican league, before spending the majority of the 2019 campaign playing south of the border. The Rays picked up the switch-hitting Davis on Aug 29 of this season and quickly brought him up to the big league roster, largely utilizing him as a pinch-runner across eight games in their Wild Card stretch run.
Davis, 29, has recorded just 22 plate appearances above Double-A in his affiliated career, lining him up for some welcome seasoning at the game’s penultimate level in 2020. Davis’ removal from the 40-man roster gives the club some flexibility as it faces several offseason decisions regarding out-of-options players and prospects in need of protection from the Rule V draft.
You seem to have drawn the shirt straw, Dylan.
Ha!
NATS WIN!
Yup! Is it just me or is it kind of odd that MLBTR hasn’t made a post about the Nats being 1st time World Champions yet? They posted about the Astros making it to the World Series almost immediately. I would think that with the looming free agency of Alex Rendon, NLCS MVP Howie Kendrick and first time ever #1 overall draft pick turned World Series MVP Steven Strasburg that MLBTR would be all over announcing the Championship and throwing out possible destinations for those guys (along with Hudson).
Heck… Who am I to complain? I’m just glad I don’t have to spend the next several months of my life reading about the potential “dynasty” the Astros might have been in the midst of even though they only have 1 championship in their entire half century+ existence.
MLBTR!: WHY HAVE YOU NOT YET ACKNOWLEDGED THE WASHINGTON NATIONALS WORLD SERIES CHAMPIONSHIP? OR STEVEN STRASBURG BECOMING THE FIRST PLAYER IN HISTORY TO WIN A WORLD SERIES MVP AWARD AFTER BECOMING THE #1 OVERALL DRAFT PICK? HOW DOES THIS CHAMPIONSHIP EFFECT THE FREE AGENCY OF GUYS LIKE ALEX RENDON, STEVEN STRASBURG, HOWIE KENDRICK AND DANIEL HUDSON CONSIDERING MOST OR ALL OF THE PERFORMED VERY WELL IN THE WORLD SERIES AND PLAYOFFS RESULTING IN THE TEAM EARNING THEIR 1ST WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP IN FRANCHISE HISTORY? WILL OTHER TEAMS OFFER THOSE FREE AGENTS MORE $ NOW WITH THE POSSIBILITY THEY COULD DO THE SAME FOR A DIFFERENT FRANCHISE? HOW DO FORMER MONTREAL EXPOS FANS FEEL ABOUT THIS? ARE THEY GLAD THAT THEIR FORMER FRANCHISE WON ITS FIRST WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP OR DO THEY FEEL DISENFRANCHISED AFTER THE STRIKE RUINED THEIR BEST SEASON IN 1994 AND WISH THIS TEAM WERE STILL IN MONTREAL? Those are many questions MLBTR should be addressing already. We are already past the most definitive hour of the 2019 Major League Baseball Season. Still nothing but radio silence. Actually… It is so quiet that I can hear crickets outside. Crickets. I’m not a true Nats fan but man. Give those fans their due. They have been waiting for this moment since the Nationals took Ryan Zimmerman with their 1st draft pick. I am sure there are at least one or two former Expos fans that watched this whole World Series and rooted for their former team who they never got to see win. Those folks actually remember Vlad senior. Acknowledge them at least. COME ON! The climax has been reached!!!
Sorry if that was loud or harsh. I have just been getting frequent notification updates by sites like CNN, Fox News , NBC, CBS and ESPN about the Championship. I have gotten several notifications from each of them. Most of those aren’t even sports sites. If news sites are covering it already how is it even possible that the most reliable MLB news site hasn’t even acknowledged it yet? I’m just a little confused. I hope it’s because MLBTR employees are all such hardcore MLB fans that they are hanging out together and enjoying the post game. Then I would kinda get it.
Okay… I’ll shut up now. Sorry for being so unnecessarily blunt.
StandUpGuy…….
I have been following this site for years and don’t ever remember MLBTR posting stand-alone story simply about the WS winners. It may be mention in passing in the body of a story relating to a player of the winning team but that is about it. There’s no hidden agenda, it’s just not what the do.
I did a quick search by date for last year and “MLBTR Red Sox Win” and there was no stand alone story.
You may specifically be right about that but I was all most certain that I read an article posted on this site this season about Houston advancing to the WS. If they take the time to acknowledge a team making it to the WS then why not even mention the team that wins it all. I could be wrong but I am pretty sure the article was specifically named something like “Houston Astros advance past ALCS” or something like that. If I am wrong I apologize but if I am right, what happened tonight was way to big to be ignored if the other topic was post worthy.
My apologies. I just checked and I think I confused 2 different articles with a non existent one. I was still pretty hyped up about the Corbin strikeout when I posted that. I don’t usually make posts like that. I think it’s the only time I’ve ever used all caps before. There is one article about the Astros ALCS roster and another that is a poll about who would win the WS. I think I must’ve actually learned Houston advanced to the ALCS when they posted the roster so I actually thought the article was about their advancement. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to be such a jack hole. I do think I asked some interesting questions in my comment though and would love to see them posted about. Especially the question about Expos fans. I think they kinda got forgotten about during this whole experience.
No Worries…it happens.
If things had worked out my nephew could have possibly been celebrating tonight with them. He was drafted by the Expos out of HS in their last draft. It would have taken a miracle but who knows….lol. He wrecked his shoulder before every pitching for them and then decided he didn’t want the hard life of an MiLB player after surgery and healing..
Really? So he would have been drafted during Vlad Guerrero Sr.’s very last season there, right? How high was he picked? Any famous players/people he met? I knew a guy that played for the White Sox and Rockies a few years ago. I also had a long conversation with Chipper Jones in a bar during his last MLB season. My high school team played against Jeff Francoeur and Brian McCann too. I love to hear the “before they were famous” baseball stories.
I looked it up, it was actually the 2nd to last Expos draft (2003). He was drafted despite not even pitching his senior year (he had a great arm but he was a lousy student).
The same scout had been following him since he was 12. He was drafted in the early 30’s since he hadn’t pitched in HS that year.
He opted to become a “draft follow” instead of signing. He went to a community college to pitch a season and get back into shape and he tore up his shoulder (I don’t remember exactly what it was). The idea was to get a year of ball under his belt and be drafted by them again the next year. It never happened.
I have a cousin who was drafted by the Yankees in 68. He was in AA by 1970 and was going to be promoted to AAA the next year. Had a 2.48 ERA over 3 years in the minors and 232 inning. He had a W/L record in college of 35-2 and a 1.48 ERA. There is something of his in the BB HoF (I forget what and too tired to look it up) related to some records he set in college.
He decided that teaching was his true passion and left baseball in 71
You have to remember that this isn’t exactly a news site, there’s no first hand reporting and only slight analysis. They’ll acknowledge Washington in a post later today. As for how does this affect FA, well expect those articles throughout the next month.
looks like you did the work for him
I need some answers to those questions. I fully expect MLBTR to send someone like Connor Byrne to Montreal to interview folks about their feelings on the Nats victory. At the very least interview that old guy that always wore a giant hat and attended every Expos game up to the last game.I am very interested to find out if he is happy his franchise finally won it or if he is bitter that it didn’t happen in Montreal. And if they are happy and root for the Nats, who would they root for if the Nats played the Rays assuming the Rays split seasons with Montreal? If that guy isn’t alive anymore then interview his great grandkids or something. I am sure they would all know. He was only the biggest Expos fan of all time. I think he actually sold the last Expos hot dog ever sold at Olympic Stadium in Montreal on eBay for surprisingly big bucks. I know there aren’t a ton of baseball fans in Montreal but I am sure there are at least a few thousand that were die hard Expos fans until the end. I am very interested to hear their take on the Expos/Nationals/Rays situation and which teams their loyalties would lie with.
I mentioned Connor Byrne because he seems like the relatively new guy so you could just tell him what to do. It’s not like anyone would have to buy him a first class plain ticket or anything. Just put him on a GreyHound with a sack lunch. Better yet just tell him to drive himself and act really offended if he even mentions anything about gas reimbursement. There are thousands of Expos fans whose voices aren’t being heard. That’s way more important than any new guys feelings. No matter how much I like his articles and chats.
I mean, it wouldn’t hurt to have a post up about it. They put up the stories about domestic violence and don’t even let us argu… I mean, comment on it. The least they could do is put up a World Series post so we can all say “F YEAAAAAH NATS!!!” or “ASTROS SUUUUUUUUUCK” or whatever.
Who is Alex Rendon?
Dude, get a grip, get a life, and get the players’ names right (Alex Rendon?).
Just WOW! A World Series when the visiting team won every time. This has gotta go down as an instant classic series. Congrats Nationals!
Yeah! That, too. I was thinking about that today. I can’t remember a single 7 game series where the home team lost evey single game. Has that happened before?
No, it hasn’t the previous record was five games that a home team lost and that only happened twice. The last time was in 1996, Braves v. Yankees. So this was literally a one for the ages series.
Gamblers and players who pick favorites are big losers after this series.
Believe it or not, this was also the first-ever World Series to feature anybody named Doolittle. Yeah, I couldn’t believe it myself! I had to make a few calls and send a few tweets to make sure of that. Unbelieveable.
First time ever a hitter (Eaton) hit a HR and had a sacrifice bunt in the same game…..
First 5 games were kind of “meh”, but the last 2 were great…..good to see some class acts (Zimmerman, Mike Rizzo) win one…..
Suzuki, Kendrick, Sanchez… many oldies getting their first rings. Feel bad for Greinke though.
Well Grienke is still on the Astros and you can bet even if Cole defects to the Angels they’ll be a top contender next season.
There was also something very hilarious about the Astros losing the series. This year the Astros lost two regular season games (One against Detroit, one against Baltimore) where they had some of the most favorable odds in the last 15 years. Then in a World Series where they were heavy favorites again, they lost and not only that but by losing every game in Houston. It was almost like fate decided an underdog needed to win.
Although I didn’t care who won the WS till I was convinced that the Astros were cheating. Seems they were able to pick up the slightest manner changes in the pitchers and his different pitches, you can only do this with the most Zoom ability of cameras and computers to absorb all the data required to have an exact analysis. Using technical equipment is against the rules. So that and the GM being fired for badmouthing and hitting women in baseball has led me to root for the Nationals. The Astros will always be tainted in my eyes.