The Orioles announced Thursday that they’ve signed right-hander Brady Rodgers and catcher Taylor Davis to minor league contracts. Tommy Birch of the Des Moines Register first reported that Davis had landed a deal with the O’s (Twitter link).
That Rodgers would land in Baltimore isn’t a huge surprise, given that he was long ranked as one of the Astros’ more promising pitching prospects during now-Orioles GM Mike Elias’ stint in the Houston front office. Injuries, however, have significantly slowed the righty’s career. He appeared poised to step into the big leagues for a full-time audition in 2017 after pitching to a 2.86 ERA in 132 innings of Triple-A ball in 2016. Instead, he underwent Tommy John surgery that May and was sidelined for more than a year.
Since going under the knife nearly three years ago, Rodgers has been limited to 116 2/3 innings between the big leagues and the minors. He’s been clobbered for 23 runs in 13 2/3 innings in the Majors but does possess a career 3.67 ERA with 7.1 K/9, 1.9 BB/9 and 0.8 HR/9 in 365 Triple-A frames. Rodgers generated strong ground-ball marks earlier in his career but has been more of a fly-ball pitcher since returning from surgery. The Astros selected Rodgers in the third round of the 2012 draft when Elias was a key figure in their scouting department — he ascended to scouting director the following year — and the Orioles have a clear need for pitching depth.
As for Davis, he’s a longtime Cubs farmhand with a bit of MLB experience. The 30-year-old backstop is signing on for his first season outside the Cubs organization after compiling a .277/.350/.385 clash through 1595 plate appearances at the Triple-A level. Davis has also logged 39 plate appearances in 20 MLB games, hitting at a .222/.256/.333 clip in that tiny sample.
In addition to his time as a catcher, Davis has logged more than 1000 innings at first base in his career and 292 frames across the diamond at the hot corner. He has a career 25 percent caught-stealing rate as a catcher and a track record of very strong framing numbers in the upper minors, per Baseball Prospectus. Beyond his solid play in Triple-A, Davis is perhaps best known for the myriad GIFs that were born of his penchant for locking eyes with the television cameras at any and all opportunities during Iowa Cubs games, dating back to the 2016 season.
Davis is a great back-up.
In AAA! Dude can’t hit, then again, he hits better than me!
He hit a pretty dope grand slam against the cardinals though. Best of luck to him.
Davis could replace Davis!
They should start rating catchers on sign stealing difficulty for the other team. They could use the Sign Obfuscation Ability Percentage for the ability to call a “clean” game.
Nice. The S.O.A.P. stat
Imagining being named after two great QBs that’s awesome
Better than being named Tebow Leaf, I suppose.
he’s probably the worst sportsplayer with that such distinction
Two great QBs??? Tyrod Taylor and Austin Davis are not great QBs.
That’s Superbowl winning QB Tyrod Taylor to you
I’m still holding out hope that Hoyer Manziel makes it to the show
Kizer Weeden is a fast rising prospect. But don’t sleep on Kessler Gradkowski either
Two players, four last names.
id much rather be Brady Rodgers or Taylor Davis than Rodgers Brady or Davis Taylor.
Gettin deep here.
Orange is an ugly color. That’s why the Orioles are bad.
…Yeah that’s gotta be it.
Fantastic uniforms my dude.
Some of the best in the Bigs
The O’s have great uniforms.
look up AAAA pitcher in the dictionary and you’ll see Brady Rodgers’s name
LOL, may be. But that is a decent chunk of our rotations last year and this year.
The staff was essentially AAAA guys last year; he’ll fit right in.
Look up former prospect taking three years to fully recover from Tommy John surgery instead.
I laughed way more at Davis’s YouTube video than I have at any of the recent late night comedy shows. Didn’t expect to like it that much. Also CoCo and Craig Ferguson forever!
That guy is hysterical. Just watched the YouTube video.
Fly ball pitcher at Camden Yards. Great combination!
I would imagine that they are hoping to return him to his ground ball tendencies.
And in point of fact some flyball pitchers have done just fine there.
#octoberbound
We always get to October. Sometimes it’s playing baseball, sometimes it’s playing golf.
Nerds