The Tigers today announced a batch of 22 non-roster players that received invitations to major league Spring Training. That group included plenty of players who had already been in the system, as well as those signed to previously-reported minor league deals. One name on the list that wasn’t already expected to be in camp was that of outfielder Jonathan Davis, indicating he’s been signed to a minor league deal.
Davis, 31 in May, has appeared in the past five major league seasons, but primarily as a reserve outfielder. He didn’t play more than 64 games in any of those campaigns and has appeared in 171 contests overall. He hasn’t been able to take advantage of those brief opportunities thus far, having hit .185/.291/.245 in 350 career plate appearances for a wRC+ of 54. He’s fared much better in the minor leagues, with a Triple-A slash line of .260/.366/.419 for a 113 wRC+, though he hasn’t been able to come close to that in the bigs. The Brewers outrighted him off their roster in September and he became a free agent at season’s end.
Despite that low offensive output, Davis will bring a solid floor thanks to his speed and defense. Statcast considered his sprint speed to be in the 70th percentile last year, which has helped him steal 18 bases in 21 career tries while also producing eight Outs Above Average in 858 2/3 outfield innings.
The Tigers don’t have much certainty in their outfield mix at present. Riley Greene should be getting everyday action in center field but is still very young and has just 93 games of major league experience. Austin Meadows spent much of last year on the injured list and only got into 36 games. Akil Baddoo followed up a breakout 2021 with a dismal 2022 where he hit just .204/.289/.269. Kerry Carpenter had a nice debut but in a small sample of just 31 games. Depth options on the 40-man include Matt Vierling and Tyler Nevin, neither of whom are fully established big leaguers at this point. Davis will serve as a veteran option for a club that was decimated by injuries last year and surely would like to have plenty of depth on hand. If he makes his way back onto the roster, he’s out of options and can’t be easily sent back to the minors, but he could be retained for future seasons since he has between two and three years of MLB service time.
Nice signing! Korn is awesome!
Will JD have time in between Korn and touring to play baseball? That’s quite a workload.
I can see, I can see I’m going blind.
.185 MLB avg….Korn reference. What, is his walkup song “Blind?”
Ah, now I get it! My bad!
Lol if his walk up song is Blind, that would be hilarious!
Hey, maybe his cap flies off when he runs.
Hate the band, but I’m glad someone made this reference. I was going to if nobody had.
The next Baddoo?? Tigers in 5
Guess Korn won’t be touring from March-October
How to say “minor league depth” in less than 500 words! Must need filler material otherwise he could have been a bullet point under “minor league depth signings.”
I have seen the dude make a few great plays. He def is fast. Could do a lot worse for depth.
A very serviceable defender and they can have him up and down till 2027.
So, we can regularly expect him to be a Kornish Hen?
Hopefully the Tigers organizational coaching braintrust can convince Davis to change his stance and swing. He needs to go all Walter Hriniak and swing down on the ball and put the ball on the goriund and run. He needs to get rid of the uppercut swingplane. He might get a .270 average and stick in the bigs if he can master it.
One less uppercut swing in the bigs and were one step cloer to real baseball again.
Hinch demands at least a 45 degree swing plain and to “let the pitch get deep for more flyballs”….he actually said that.
How is Vierling now classed as a “depth option”?
Same way they fail to mention Malloy. Even this site displays mid to small market blinders at times. If your team is not in a big market, or predicted to contend, the team is blurry to them. Don’t worry that they don’t know every thing about Detroit’s players. Harris doesn’t either.
The guy is 5′ 8″ tall….is this why Harris lowered the fences?
LOL!!!! He is kinda short for a outfielder.
A boom dah, dah boom dah dah mey ahha
are…You…READYYYYYYYYYYYY?!?!?!?!?!?!
That .185 BA, makes him fit right in !
The Tigers suck at getting anyone with value. Seems like this new GM is just sitting back and thinking, “imma just chill for this first season & see what we have”……we have a last place team, nerd!!
“Getting anyone with value” you mean they’re not spending money. Yes that’s intentional. Why would Harris put his chips in the middle of the table when he just walked in? Gotta read the room first man
I didn’t exactly mean like the Marlins won their championships. He just confuses me by cutting Candelario and then getting nothing to the point that we have to hope & pray that Maton,Kreidler, etc, step up. I wished they wudda got Segura if they’re going this route. And they did try for Segura.
Someone should make up/start the rumor that Chris Illich actually cares.
But being hockey season, no one would believe it….. Oilers fans were in on it.
This example makes it so.clear, how the actions of ONE PERSON, affects the lives of everyone on the planet.
Some people ppl le just Don keep their word.
They’ll do great.