After spending more than two months on the injured list, third baseman/outfielder J.D. Davis will be activated by the Mets in advance of Friday’s game, reports Mike Puma of the New York Post (Twitter link). He’s on the 60-day injured list, so a corresponding move will be required.
Davis, 28, will bring plenty of offensive punch back to the Mets lineup and presumably slot back into the mix at the hot corner and in the corner outfield mix. He was out to a massive .390/.479/.610 start through 48 plate appearances. Since being acquired by the Mets in the 2018-19 offseason, Davis has posted an outstanding .295/.377/.491 batting line and swatted 30 long balls in 730 plate appearances.
Glovework is an issue with regard to Davis, who made three errors in his first 13 games at third base this season and carries an overall career mark of -21 Defensive Runs Saved there in just 864 innings. The Mets have been connected to potential third-base upgrades even with Davis on the mend, and he has ample experience in left field plus a bit at first base, so it’s possible he could bounce around the diamond or find a more permanent home at another position. Utilityman Jonathan Villar has been spending considerable time at third base in Davis’ absence, but he’s not exactly a premium defensive option himself.
Wherever he ends up playing, Davis showed on his minor league rehab assignment that he looks plenty ready to return to the big leagues. He logged 13 games with the Mets’ top affiliate in Syracuse and posted a .306/.457/.667 batting line with three home runs and four doubles in 46 plate appearances. Given that the Mets rank 23rd in the Majors in runs scored and 24th in wRC+ over the past month, Davis’ bat will be a welcome addition to the batting order.
He could play first! Oh, yeah. Pete Alonso. He could play left! Oh, yeah. Dom Smith. What if they move Smith to… Conforto, right. Well third it is then. Mets would benefit from a DH more than any NL team.
Don’t worry, I’m sure in a year or two the NL will find a spot for their defensively challenged with the DH. Ugh, where have you gone Joe DiMaggio, a MLB turns its lonely eyes to you…….
great thing about the DH is it gives a place in baseball to people who can’t play baseball
What’s great about that? If you “can’t” play baseball, then you shouldn’t be in it to begin with.
that was kind of my point, MLB anyway, at LEAST NL.
And with that, BaldPhoenix wins the “old man yells at cloud” award of the day.
well, the game does not actually suck – go watch video of Gerrit Cole shutting out Astros last Saturday, or Antuve coming up big on Sunday
I sympathize with your position on things, though I don’t agree with it – it is not NEARLY as bad as you make it out to be. There are – I don’t know – 10 players currently playing who could compete with the all time greats of other eras, I think, which is fairly normal though maybe low end of spectrum across the many decades; prob about the same as guys debuting ’72-82
@ Nuanced Jamesian;
Am older and have watched MLB play deteriorate as FO’s don’t challenge and stretch players, but rather only put them in situations they’re decent at.
Tim Kerchan (sp?) has a nice article on ESPN about the 1971 All-Star rosters from 50 years ago. Full of HOF’ers. Example – Hank Aaron and Willie Mays batted 1-2 for the NL.
Looked that the 2021 All-Star roster.
It’s embarrassing.
(This offseason I read the consensus opinion that Mookie Betts is the 2nd best position player in MLB next to Mike Trout. He’s hitting .256. Now BA may not mean what it once did, but .256 from the 2nd best position player in MLB in his prime?…..at mid-season? I don’t recall Ted Williams, Mickey Mantle, Hank Aaron, Frank Robinson, Stan Musial, Willie Mays or other true superstars doing anything like that…..”THE GAME HAS CHANGED!”)
Way to pull out one, meaningless, stat in a down year from a great player. Mookie is hitting. 256 but with a .366OBP and a .472SLG for a 131OPS+. That means in a slightly down year Mookie is 31% better than the average player. Also giving his usual GG defense for a 3 WAR in just over half a season. which is pretty freakin amazing. Please do a bit of research if you are going to post.
and yet you spend all day posting on baseball comment sections. seems well adjusted.
Look, what I call “the Willie Mays generation” (debuts between ’51 and ’69) is one of the greatest groups of all time, vying with 1900-1915 or so as greatest ever, and 1984-1996 is not that far behind
Number of true greats fluctuates up and down generation by generation; one of the indicators of a coming great generation is the number of players who debut at age 22 or younger (that is also an indicator perhaps of the prior gen maybe being not all that great.
You make it sound like they are Kickers, @Jamesian.
Hey, if games are still tied in the 11th, we can put men on 2nd & 3rd? Tied in the 12th we can load the bases maybe? And the next time a carnival comes into town they can sponsor a ball game with Manfred sported in a clown suit, because who will really want to watch a game by then.
Hey ellisburks;
I was expecting someone to pull out a bunch of other stats to show me how screwed up I was.
Guys like you never fail.
Now……
True superstars in their prime and uninjured aren’t hitting .256 at mid-season.
Then pitchers who can’t hit should be banned.
Mookie is AT LEAST Bobby Bonds caliber, with better D – also, .297 career BA so far, compares favorably with Frank Robinson in that regard, and, again, better D.
3 or 4 good seasons away from HOF
boo hoo hoo
hey people leave our game alone
What the Mets should really do is trade away some of the redundancies.
They’re going to have to think that jd, perraza, guillorme can get shipped for pitching. There’s no room and someone including McKinney has to get sent down b/c they need all the pitchers they have.
@ koos;
Who has excess pitching that wants a one of those guys?
They can get better deals elsewhere.
Being a National League team constructed of several DH options is not the “Mets would benefit from the DH more than any NL team” its more bad roster composition
yes
Mets are having their best defensive season in seemingly forever after one real addition and one simple change. I think the dh isn’t needed for the Mets anymore.
Need his bat to ignite the team on offense!
Most teams today reat players and rotate them. No reason why they all can’t get playing time?
Now that Conforto has played himself off the team next year JD should be learning RF this winter
Fair point, but maybe he’ played his way into the Mets plans this year as well
I never believed in the 140+ mill on MC for this roster, I guess we will never know on that high of a number but still see the odds high for a reunion next year
JD Davis isn’t a viable RF. Especially not at Citi Field.
Conforto will be in Seattle next year , the mets would be smart to trade for Joey Gallo and Gibson from Texas.
I don’t expect Conforto to be back
This seems premature. Aside from a downtick in line drive percentage, Conforto’s peripherals aren’t far off from his career averages and his BABIP is well below his career numbers.
He’s played in only 50-ish games and has battled a few injuries. That doesn’t erase his years of steady hitting. His diminished his free agent value, sure, but I wouldn’t write him off just yet.
BABiP is why Conforto became overrated. I’m not saying he’s not a solid player, but his great 2020 was all BABiP driven and it led fans to believe he had attained a new level of play. He also profiles as the type of medium-range power hitter who benefited from the 2019-2020 rocket ball. As said, he’s still a good player, but he profiles more as a .250/.350/.450 range hitter. Has value, but Boras will market him based on 2020, which is why I don’t believe he’ll return to the Mets.
uh, no. BABIP is not why he became overrated. His career OPS+ is 125, which includes his horrendous 2021 and his subpar 2016. He’s a legitimately great hitter.
I’ve bet on the come with this Mets team a couple years now to disappointment….I think they take the Div this year and we see a different Mets offence the 2nd half
Like a lot of teams they could use another inns eater and probably a LH pen arm. Shame Reds are crawling back, Wade Miley and Amir Garrett would be a nice fit for this team
DA Conforto and move Dom smith to right field. JD Davis needs to play left feild, he just awful wt third base. There were people on this site saying how Conforto would get 200+ million while I said I wouldnt even extend him a qualifying offer. Dude never hits in the clutch and strikesout or hits a weak popup to the infield whenever theres any guy on base.
DA Conforto? Smith in right and Davis in left with Nimmo in CF would be an all-time awful defensive team. I’d show patience with Conforto, he’ll pull out if this. And there is no such thing as “clutch”. Studies have actually been done on the subject.
“And there is no such thing as “clutch””
Tell that to Rose, Dykstra, Gerrit Cole, and on and on through the winners of the world
You chose 3 players who won 4 titles? To prove the clutch gene is real? Thanks for the laugh
They outperform even their own outperforming selves, when it really matters, and the pressure is on, but you go, girl, read your studies
You really can’t see the flaw in after the fact listing winners and then declaring them clutch? Very defective methodology. Research showed that, once one ACCOUNTS FOR RANDOMNESS, there is no discernible pattern of players being either clutch or unclutch. I guess I could tell that to Dykstra. Not sure what that could prove.
LOL muh science
GO LOOK AT how they overperform in post season (I SAW Dykstra do it in the dome), plus get their teams there to begin with. ALL successful front offices know this, and try to get players who can DO this.
They are often categorized as “hard-nosed”
Zero front offices do this. Show me where they do. Your “evidence” is purely anecdotal and cherry-picked.
ALL successful front offices know this, and try to get players who can DO this.
It’s called thriving under pressure, and being able to do so is a hallmark of successful endeavors in every competitive field, including life, and war.
I take it you can crunch numbers but don’t understand actual humans very well.
Funny you say that, after I read an article last week about how clutch Ohtani has been.. granted, its in a small sample size compared to a full career, but I think the number was something like .375 BA when the at bat counted.
You clearly don’t watch baseball. Theres a reason dudes like Arenado and Freddie Freeman get 100+ rbis even in thier down years. Conforto bats 3rd or 4th every season and comes up with runners on base almost every at bat. He comes threw maybe 10% of the time, and thats mostly due to him getting hit by a pitch because he stands on top of the plate
I don’t think this site allows you to mention RBIs in any context whatsoever 🙂
Metsin7, you are using eye test. It’s faulty. Stats show RBIs increase depending on factors outside of a hitters control. Guys get 100 RBIs cuz they bat fourth, get a lot of hits and get extra base hits. Not cuz they have some magical power they evoke when runners are on.
You can mention RBIs just, you know, have an understanding of the stat that doesn’t pre-date 1979.
@metsin7 this is the worst post I’ve ever seen on this site. Congrats
The Outfield defense with Davis in left and Smith in right would be horrendous. Nimmo is good but not good enough to make up for 2 out of place guys next him.
Davis needs to be a trade piece, no room for him at Citi other than as a bench piece that can move around the diamond. I remember too well him hitting a solo homerun just to turn around and give up an infield error that cost the pitcher 2 runs. No thanks.
Mets need to package JD Davis and a prospect or two for Kris Bryant and Craig Kimbrel. Conforto will Boras himself to Seattle next year. Sign Bryant to be your RF.
Kimbrel? What do the Mets need him for?
Bryant and Kimbrel would be a tough pull. Needs to be a good prospect.
Kimbrel? I wouldn’t take him for just the cash on his contract. No trust.
Not exactly sure I trust Bryant either after last year.
While we certainly will be buyers at the deadline, I say include Conforto in any deal. Some playoff bound team would take him. We have too many 210 hitters on this team and the Mets would be FOOLISH to resign him never mind giving him a big contact!
Conforto and Thor for Judge.
Please say this is ironic
That would be short-sighted, imo. Conforto has a bWAR/650 of 4.1 over the past 4 years. Bagging on a player because he has one weak year, wouldn’t make sense, especially if part of the reason for the weak year is the injury. He had a .787 OPS thru 5/2.
Ah the classic fan overreaction: He’s a bum! He’s not clutch! Trade him for a sack of rocks! I know all this cuz I pondered it for two seconds! Without any real research!…. You’d hear it all day on talk radio if you could stomach it.
Mets threads are the Swimsuit issues of MLBTR
Conforto is not even worth a qualifying offer let alone any high priced contract.
I would also package Davis and Conforto as a throw in and pay his remaining 2021 contract for some starting pitching and what ever prospects make sense.
It’s not “bagging” on Conforto if you take advantage of the fact that he will be gone at the end of the year; he is no longer yours to quote past statistics and certainly not worth bringing back since the bust of Lindor has used a big chunk of your budget!
I liked the Phillies for the 2021 NLE championship during the pre-season, and still do (whoever wins will quite probably be out in the 1st round of the playoffs).
The biggest plus the Mets have had going for them the first half is that JD Davis and Robinson Cano are not out there playing defense.
As a 2021 Phillies rooter, I see JD playing again as a big plus for the Phillies as they make their move in the 2nd half. A pity Cano can’t get back as well.
good luck with that.
Mets are more likely, but the Phillies have a more favorable schedule. Both teams have more home than road games, but Mets still have to play more teams with (current) winning records. Phillies finished the hard part of their schedule already. Mets have a brutal August. But there are other factors. Nats, Braves and even Marlins can’t be overlooked. Mets will be adding at the deadline. Phillies bullpen is brutal. I expect they’ll add too, but they don’t have much to trade without getting really creative. Mets pitching is significantly better than any team in the NLE.
About time
Just out of curiosity – does JD Davis get boo’d like the current Astros do?
I love Smith, but having him as our everyday left fielder is really not ideal. His talent is truly going to waste. And being blocked by the polar bear, it’s safe to say he won’t be playing first base on a everyday basis any time soon. I would rather have Davis in left field for that matter. Villar has earned playing but is not ideally our everyday third baseman. And we already know that Davis is not either. This is where a package deal for Bryant with Smith in the package would make sense. He’s got trade value. If not Bryant, then Escobar from Arizona. Smith is one of the true strength of this team, don’t get me wrong, but in my opinion he brings also very strong trade value to bring a good return back. Just my opinion. Even if we get Bryant, the good thing about him is that he can also play Outfield if we decide to keep Davis and Villar at third base.
Putting a package together that includes Smith for Bryant doesn’t make sense, Smith isn’t making any real $$ yet for a rental in Bryant unless they know that they can resign Bryant but that’s another $20 mil dollar player unless they can attach Cano’s deal to it and I doubt the Cubs would, or the Mets would have to NOT resign any of their own FA’s next year (Stroman,Conforto and Syndergaard unless he takes a low 1 year deal to prove himself).
Davis doesn’t get moved for anyone and neither does Smith. As soon as the DH comes to the NL, Pete fills that role. Dom has become a very good left fielder in his own right. As far as Davis goes, we have the perfect compliment to him in Guillorme for defense late in games and Villar to platoon, run, defense, rest, etc.
Bringing Davis back sends someone else to the IL or the last arm in the ‘pen goes to AAA.
Welcome back JD Davis!!! Let him get his 3 at bats, then pinch run or double switch him out with Villar for defense. Mets NEED his right handed bat to protect Alonso given the 3 batter minimum rule.
Room for Bryant!