The A’s are designating corner infielder J.D. Davis for assignment, reports Jeff Passan of ESPN (X link). MLB.com’s Martín Gallegos reports (on X) that the A’s are recalling outfielder Lawrence Butler from Triple-A Las Vegas in what is presumably the corresponding move. Oakland hasn’t announced the transactions, which will likely be made official tomorrow with the A’s off tonight.
It’ll end a brief stint in Oakland for Davis, who landed with the A’s in somewhat controversial fashion. He and the Giants went to an arbitration hearing over the offseason. Davis won that hearing and was set for a $6.9MM salary. Arbitration salaries aren’t fully guaranteed until Opening Day unless the team and player agree to terms before the hearing, though. The Giants signed Matt Chapman a couple weeks into Spring Training. Rather than push Davis to the bench, the Giants released him to get out from under most of the money.
San Francisco paid him 30 days termination pay, around $1.1MM, and sent him to the open market. Davis’ extremely late entry into free agency didn’t do him any favors. He signed with the A’s on a $2.5MM deal that contained an additional $1MM in incentives.
His run in green and gold didn’t go especially well. Davis lost a couple weeks to an adductor strain and appeared in 39 games. He hit .236/.304/.366 with four homers in 135 trips to the plate. That’s essentially league average production in a pitcher-friendly home park and a down overall run environment. Yet Davis needs to be an above-average hitter to provide much overall value. He’s a limited baserunner and defender who has spent the majority of his time at first base this season.
Davis has tallied 97 innings at the hot corner and logged 148 frames at first base. His defensive grades haven’t been great at either spot. While this year’s workload is an exceedingly small sample, that’s in line with Davis’ overall track record as a middling defensive third baseman.
Nevertheless, the Fullerton product has been a solid regular for most of his career. He was an above-average hitter each season from 2019-22, running a cumulative .276/.363/.457 slash in more than 1200 plate appearances between the Mets and Giants. Over that stretch, Davis walked at a strong 10.5% clip and showed above-average power to offset a 27.3% strikeout rate. He had a league average .248/.325/.413 line with 18 homers in a career-high 144 games in his final season with the Giants.
At the time they signed him, the A’s planned on Davis playing regularly at third base and hitting well enough to be a midseason trade candidate. He has been nudged to a bench role in recent weeks. Abraham Toro jumped Davis for the starting third base job with an excellent showing in May. Toro hasn’t hit at all in June, yet the A’s have stuck with him at the top of the lineup. He is under arbitration control through 2026. Tyler Soderstrom, one of the top offensive talents in the organization, is playing regularly at first base. Soderstrom came up as a bat-first catching prospect but seems like a better long-term fit at first thanks to the presence of Shea Langeliers.
The A’s will have five days from the time of Davis’ official DFA to explore trade possibilities. (Players can spend up to a week in DFA limbo, but teams need to start the 48-hour waiver process within five days if they can’t line up a trade.) Any return would be modest, but it’s not out of the question the A’s find someone willing to take on part or all of the approximate $1.38MM still remaining on his contract. If there are no takers, Davis will become a free agent in a week’s time — either via release or rejecting an outright assignment to the minors.
There are a few teams that could look to add a corner bat. The Yankees lost Anthony Rizzo for upwards of a month to a forearm fracture. The Red Sox haven’t gotten much out of Dominic Smith at first base, although they could just wait things out with Triston Casas potentially a few weeks from returning. The Astros released José Abreu last week and are relying on a Jon Singleton/Mauricio Dubón platoon at first base. The Nationals and Pirates haven’t gotten much from the position, while the Reds might be without righty-swinging first baseman Christian Encarnacion-Strand for the rest of the season.
I’m pretty sure the franchise itself is DFA
Who kicked off J.D. Davis?
The Butler did it. Not at Candlestick.
More like an elaborate tax cheat scheme. Signing Wood and Davis was mostly a gimmick to try and get off revenue sharing probation.
Could be a useful piece for the Braves. Cant be worse than Duvall.
He hadn’t played OF regularly in 5 years. Hes played maybe 10 games in OF since then. Even when playing OF regularly he was bad.je hasn’t been hitting much better wither.
They’d probably be better off waiting to make a waiver claim opposed to Davis. Ultimately they need to decide if they re gonna try and make a run this year and if so trade for an OF.
Says more about Fisher that his 2.75 million dollar salary and 1 million in incentives that he obviously wasn’t going to hit was too expensive for Moneybags.
Mets blew it with him. All for getting him back.
No point. Vientos plays the same positions and is younger and better.
You can’t blow what isn’t there. He’s always been a slow footed, overrated hitter who was defensively challenged at whatever position he played. That said, the arbitration rules need to be changed. If you go to arb and prevail, it should be guaranteed.
He was only overrated in NY. Every other place, people knew he was mediocre. He was a meh player, that people didn’t take serious when the Mets acquired him – even members of their own fan base at the time. But you know, when they put on that Mets uni, they all of the sudden are greater than they are ever capable of being.
How did the Mets blow it with a career median player? He has one good year with the Mets. The rest was fair to midland. And if you’re one of these guys who use analytics to prove Davis is the best hitter the Mets ever had, you’re using the numbers wrong. He’s a sub-par defensive player, and always has been. All the way back to the Astros.
Analytics don’t do any favors for Davis. He’s hit for good contact twice and once hit over 20 HRs. The HR seasons and one of good contacts came in 2019.
He’s bad with his glove, slightly below avg power, no speed, and Ks much more than he walks. Analytics does not portray him as a good player.
You see, I know this. But we have a couple folks on here who like to view the numbers a different way. How? I don’t know. But at least 2 of these people claimed that JD was the best hitter in Mets history. I laughed, until I realized they weren’t kidding.
But we have a couple folks on here who like to view the numbers a different way. How? I don’t know.
========================
I’ll be “that person”. Since the 2019 season that Tigers referenced, JD has an OPS+ of 111. So he can hit. He’s righty, so he fits in well as a backup 1B/3B for most teams.
I like Dom Smith on my RS, but JD is a better fit than Dom, and a better player than Dalbec.
This is just my opinion, but I’d rather have a backup corner infielder who isn’t defensively challenged. I mean , if your backup was all that as a hitter, he’d be starting. Why let him hurt you in the field too?
“Better player than Dalbec”…Talk about a low bar. I could go downtown(in any city) right now and within an hour I could find at least a couple of people who are “better than Dalbec”. You can cherry pick stats all you like, but JD Davis has always been a below average player with bad hands and an unreliable throwing arm. Getting cut by the rebuilding Oakland A’s tells you everything you need to know about J.D.
@Jdt8312
You know what the problem is with a lot of the guys that continue to use analytics? A lot of them pick and choose the numbers that support their opinion, while they ignore all of the others that disprove their opinion. That’s one of the many reasons a lot of people don’t respect the analytics guys.
I’ve literally been on these boards and seen posts by the same guys speaking about players on their favorite team, and shift their use of analytics to favor the player they’re talking about when they’re talking about two different types of players.
I’m glad you called this guy out.
You guys are spot on about the picking and choosing. People also do it with traditional stats. Or if they don’t like analytics they over use it trying to apply it across eras. I see it often with WAR, which is best used to players from same era where the formula is the same. Comparing across eras would be like comparing just HRs from home games of a Rockies and Tigers players.
Much of the argument against analytics is against those cherrypicking or those who say it’s a formula it’s “made up”. Every stat is made up to an extent. And WAR is a cumulative of those stats. And as far as is being a calculation, that just accounts for the critical thinking that should be applied to traditional stats, such as DET/COL example. A few more examples HR totals from 2019 and 2021 or SB totals from 2021 and 2023.
We know not all things are equal. Analytics helps account and adjust for the disparity. However just like any stat one can’t just focus on one particular stat in a vacuum.
@Tigers3232
Agreed.
And yes, I’ve seen the guys that say that analytics are made up. I don’t buy into analytics so much either, but I don’t say they’re made up because that’s highly inaccurate because all stats are built in some way. I’ve pointed that analytics are theoretical just like most of the formulaic traditional stats. The formulas were composed based on a theory that combining certain numbers in a formula can adequately measure X in a player. Unfortunately, we have the guys on one side that say that analytic stats are made up and then guys on the other side that use them as gospel truth (while sticking to their preferred ones to respect).
And absolutely you hit the nail on the head about not comparing players from different eras. Along with your mention of the differences in eras due to measuring efforts involved, I’ll add another thing in support – style of play. Each era had a distinct style and valued things differently when it came to the philosphy of winning baseball. It also differed due to the types of players available in the era because not all human beings are cookie-cutter robots that come out exactly the same in every era and the availibility of the types of players are not the same. Availbility of the types of players will differ, which will have an effect on the style of play that is prominent in that era and where value is placed in game strategy. The same way we don’t have cookie-cutter ballplayers, we don’t have cookie-cutter eras.
Those guys misusing stats (both analytics and traditional) are missing a great deal. Personally, I think a big contributor is that many learned their baseball from video games and/or fantasy leagues instead of actually getting out to the park and playing in a league like so many of us. They don’t learn the in-game stuff that would help with understanding stats better and how to properly use them instead of either dismissing or picking and choosing which to use to favor their predetermined opinion (both traditional and analytycal stats).
I agree that they didn’t totally blow it with him, but that trade was awful. I wanted Wilmer for the package they offered (JD and 3 prospects including Szapucki), not Ruf. JD outperformed Ruf following that trade.
I would absolutely agree with you there.
Cashman on the phone to Zarhan right now.
“I’ll be happy to alleviate you of the financial burden of Davis’ contract”.
Cashman can have Davis for the prorated league minimum once he clears waivers from Oakland. No need to call the Giants at all…
Rsox, not to minimize your claim but Davis does have a say in where he chooses to play if he clears waivers. If Cashman wants him (and I have no comment on that), a phone call would be prudent.
My point was there is no need to call the Giants as they have nothing to do with anything. Of course Davis has a say where he plays
Yall have any excuse to bring up Farhan. The giants have nothing to do with this
The poster had a brain fart. No need to jump on him/her.
“The poster had a brain fart. No need to jump on him/her..” – this should be pinned to the top of every long comment thread
David Frost and Davis will be pro-rated league min pay. I’m not sure if he’s even worth a 40-man stash for the Yankees.
DFA the FO while you’re at it
The Giants have a FO???
Wtf do the giants have to do with this. I’d love an explanation, or are you just dense?
Interesting move. His numbers aren’t great but his OPS+ is almost league average and is better than about half the guys on their 40 man roster. Guess they want to try someone younger.
Maybe bringing Noda back, the Average isn’t great but he’s hit 8 HR’s at AAA since his demotion. Or Butler, same thing; Average isn’t great but 4 HR’s at AAA since being sent dowm
Noda should come back he’s great at walking
League about OPS+ doesn’t help much with his glove. DH spot is occupied by Rooker.
Has his agent been fired yet?
Agreed Mustard. This is Oakland, whom like Tampa don’t pay fringe mlb players exhorbant amounts. Davis’s agent was nuts not to have settled, before going to arbitration panel on terms. guessing around 10-20% less than the 6m figure that he “won”, then lost when was dfa’d?
What is it with lawyers? They see wins/losses, rather than what is best for people.
johnsilver
“Davis’s agent was nuts not to have settled, before going to arbitration panel on terms.”
It’s on the player. The agent’s job is to inform the player of the options.
Why do you think the agent didn’t do that in this case?
Davis’ reaction. He sounded surprised and oblivious. Indicated to me he was unaware of the arbitration implication. It’s on the agent to let him know these things.
It is highly unlikely that everyone in here knows the arbitration implication, but JD doesn’t. He probably thought that there was no way the Giants were ever going to cut him.
JB
First, highly unlikely everyone here knows the arbitration implication.
Super unlikely more than a few people knew about it before this situation.
I’d say 50/50 Davis knew it.
The agent should have told him.
Yes, they probably didn’t put much thought into this outcome
Can’t see the “no way”. Giants were heavily linked with Chapman right from the get go of FA. The possibility of JD being left out was always there.
Bringing’ back Larry Butts!
Thought Brown made more sense to designated oh well… He is probably next…
A’s probably still hoping for some kind of rebound for Brown so they can trade him.
Hes Going To Arizona BattLe With Suarez For 3B
That’s what I thought. It would make sense
Surprised that they couldn’t even trade him I thought that he would be good enough to get something at the deadline
They still have 7 days to trade him. But nobody will want even that small contract when they can wait and get him for 750,000.
It’s crazy, but Davis only has 72 more career home runs than I do.
Looking at the A’s stat wise, Davis is not one of the worst performers, but what does stand out is:
Age 31
RBIs 5 w/4HRs
9BBs
Those are not going to help you I guess w/A’s, but its curious why not get rid of seth brown he is similar stat wise and struggling much harder than davis
Also 29H w/30K
The team expects if you get 29 H you must have at least 58Ks
Not sure why he is DFA’d here but I guess they did not find a trade partner or want to reduce money somewhere.
I wouldn’t mind the Yankees taking a chance on him. He can’t be any worse than DJL.
But you cut the huge DJL salary. to make room for him.
I think age and salary are the two biggest numbers that played into this decision.
I think if you compare similar players
Seth Brown 2.6m FA 2027
JD Davis 2.5m FA 2025
Yes contract #’s play huge role because they know the likelihood of Brown being picked up was nil
Whereas Davis who is nowhere near as bad as Brown likely will be picked up and with mounting injuries that played a role in his DFA
Its surprising that A’s are in this position – Beane has really lost something – their trades of past are not working out neither are the draft choices of recent times.
Beane is no longer a full time employee of the Oakland/Sacramento/Las Vegas A’s.
Billy Beane, General Manager 1998–2015; VP Baseball Operations 2015–present
Also note he is at least a 5% owner.
Whatever time he spends am sure he is not thrilled with output
Jose Abreu waived, this former Astro might be a fit back in Houston.
Cubs have a bit of a crisis at 3B. Not saying Davis is the answer, but he’s an option for a team not in buying or selling mode…..yet.
Totally reasonable thought. But who gets bounced off the roster to make room? Basically Madrigal or Wisdom?
It would make sense for Jed to take a flyer on him. His defense isn’t any worse than Wisdom’s and he doesn’t strike out as much.
That’s a joke right?
The joke is Wisdom. How many mediocre seasons do they keep him, hoping for one of his HR streaks that don’t seem to happen anymore. Davis’s history has way more of offensive consistency and I’ll bet it won’t cost squat to acquire him. At this point, with no one of note to bring up from the farm to play third, what would they have to lose? Morel would DH. The downside here is the fact that they’re in this situation at all.
Yeah sure. That’s what we need. Another 3B who can’t field or hit. How many do you really need?
Always wondered why Wisdom was kept. I though He was like Frank The Tank. Afill in until they got more talented. A glorified 4A player like the Tank!
He cuts Hoyer’s grass.
I feel the same about my RS. A righty backup 1B/3B behind two lefties is appealing, especially with a LH dominant lineup.. He’s never really not hit.
Perhaps JD should focus more on 1B, where there were indications statistically last year that he was decent, albeit in a fairly small sample size. He wouldn’t be highly sought after as a 1B but as a primarily 3B he is not desirable at all really. Several teams have needed a league average hitting 1B recently. I could see why people take him on to plug a hole at 3B but it’s not a good idea. There is some way he can offer value probably as he’s a fairly competent hitter.
Mets need to right the wrong and sign JD. JD Davis is an above average hitter and has improved his defense at third base. I’d rather have Davis over Stewart on the team despite Stewart’s good game today. The A’s never gave JD a chance. They would play him sparatically. JD needs to play everyday to unlock his full potential
He’s a well-below-average player and will be out of the league soon. All these people who thought he was going to have some great comeback year with the A’s were so wrong. Like I told them back when he signed there. If you can’t make it with the A’s it might be time to hang ’em up.
They attempted to sign him when he was cut.
He didn’t want to be in a platoon situation
Once Davis becomes a free agent, Dalbec should get the boot off the 40 man roster for the Sox. It’s time for Dalbec to go to the NPB or a worse MLB team. Hokkaido could use a replacement for Franmil Reyes. Orix can definitely use a replacement for Marwin Gonzalez. Saitama would improve with a better hitter than Franchy Cordero. Hanshin might not be willing to put up with continued bad performance from Sheldon Neuse in spite of the big home run during last year’s Japan Series.
Dodgers should trade for him and plug him in at third until Muncy is healthy.
He might do well in Cincinnati with that bandbox of a ballpark. Just hope not to find him on the bases ahead of De La Cruz.
He could be the RH DH platoon with Martini, and spell Steer and Candelario every now and then in the field.
A possibility!
To leftcoaster:They, with an unlimited budget, could afford it! Wish I had all of their money to throw away, for someone for a couple of weeks, Then DFA them away!
If he can’t make Oaklands roster why does everyone think a contender can use him? I’ve never laughed so hard.
Because he has Ham and Egger ability.
Wal-Mart can use a DH. They’ll continue to be stacked with Yasiel Puig, Avi Garcia, Julio Urias, Trevor Bauer, Anthony Bass.
Just 5 RBI with his other numbers is carzy.
JD Davis is gonna end up playing a lot for somebody. I wouldn’t be surprised if that team is his original team (Astros). Maybe Arizona, too. They haven’t gotten anything of note out of Suarez, and God knows, the D-Backs could use some pop.
wRC+ of 98? League average player DFA’d? If that’s the case, time to DFA some other players as well. Best to raise the average player’s performance by removing a bunch of dead weight from the league.
WHAT!!??
HOW ON EARTH DO YOU DFA DAVIS AND KEEP DIAZ? (.091 avg / .182 ops)
OR BROWN?
The team is trying to lose. They are intentionally putting out on the field inferior players. This move is illogical. There is no reason, looking at recent history, you keep DIAZ over Davis.
CyrusZ
What if, sorry…WHAT IF there is more to player evaluation than batting average and OPS over part of a season?
Diaz is making way more money than Davis . Diaz is the only backup to play 3b , ss , 2b , 1b , lf . Most of the people on the Vegas roster that play these positions are on the IL . So there is no possible way to remove Diaz even if they wanted to . Learn your rosters
That is pretty rude, but let me just nicely say I know my rosters.
Nick Allen is healthy and killing the ball in LV, he can play all the infield positions and as bad as he is, he hits better than Diaz.
The outfield (LF) isn’t an issue b/c there are multiple outfielders both on the roster and available for call-up (replacing Seth Brown w/Butler).
However, if you were concerned about that …
Armando Alvarez is someone they could take a flier on, though he’s not on the 40 man roster, but he has been scorching hot in AAA in June and literally has played exactly every position you listed for Diaz.
Again – removing Diaz and replacing him with either Allen or Alvarez would be a step up on both sides of the ball – at least that what the stats and rosters say. 🙂
JD Davis Is cut loose, but Seth Brown still has a job. How is that possible?
Seth Brown can at least field RF and LF . Plus he laid down a mean bunt for a RBI last week . He knows he is struggling and did something . JD was just redundant and feeble .
That is why the overachieving A’s are still holding a losing record. Not much talent above Ham and Egger Status or Ham and Egger minus status. Amazed at how well you are doing!
Seth Brown was outrighted too
Nice change of scenery candidate. Get him, Jed.
No thanks. Pass.
Don’t know where they would play him but Pirates could use a league average hitter.
They have way too many below the league average if they want to make the playoffs.
You get him, average Joe moves to outfield when Davis plays!
Worth a look over Dominic Smith at first base for the Sox? Smith and Dalbec ain’t getting it done.
A cheap alternative to those guys, when he hits waivers.
I’m fine to be rid of JD Davis he’s awful at 3b and a liability at 1b and was feeble in the batting box . Lawerence though has done nothing in AAA to be back so soon . Hopefully he can drink some of the tea Soderstrom has been guzzling .
Bottom Line: His defense makes him a Ham and Egger. No plus or minus. He is a ML player, but has a weakness like most Ham and Egger types!
Hope he finds a new team.
I like this move also….this was our big sign and he produced nothing….
Cubs need a breath of fresh air. They have no 3rd baseman.
Davis now a Yankee.