The Orioles are signing infielder J.D. Davis, reports Jon Heyman of The New York Post on X. It’s a minor league deal for Davis, per Andy Kostka of The Baltimore Banner on X. The veteran was released by the Yankees last week.
Davis 31, came into 2024 on a solid five-year run of being an above-average bat at the major league level. But this season has been an unusual one in a few different ways, which have largely been disappointing for him.
He and the Giants went to an arbitration hearing in the winter, which he won, though it turned out to be a hollow victory. The arbiter sided with him and his reps, opting for their $6.9MM salary as opposed to the $6.5MM figure the team sought. However, under the collective bargaining agreement, arb salaries are only guaranteed if the sides avoid a hearing.
The Giants then took advantage of the weak free agent market, signing both Matt Chapman and Blake Snell after they lingered in free agency into the month of March. The Chapman deal nudged Davis off his perch as the club’s regular third baseman, so they released him. Since his salary wasn’t guaranteed, the Giants only had to pay him 30 days’ termination pay, roughly $1.1MM.
Davis then went out into the aforementioned tepid free agent market and had to settle for a $2.5MM guarantee from the Athletics, far less than what he was slated to earn in San Francisco. With Oakland, he missed a couple of weeks while on the injured list with a right adductor strain and didn’t get into much of a groove around that IL stint. He hit .236/304/.366 for a wRC+ of 96 and was designated for assignment in June.
The Yankees then acquired him but didn’t give him much playing time. He was on the roster for over a month but battled an illness and only got into seven games, hitting .105/.227/.158 in those. He was designated for assignment just prior to the trade deadline but the Yanks couldn’t find a taker. Since he has more than five years of major league service time, he could have rejected an outright assignment while retaining the remainder of his salary. The Yankees skipped that formality by releasing him.
It’s undoubtedly been a rough year but it’s a sensible flier for the O’s to take, especially on a minor league deal. Davis had a robust slash of .268/.352/.443 from 2019 to 2023 for a wRC+ of 120, indicating he was 20% better than the league average hitter in that time period. Since the Yankees released him, they are paying what’s left of his contact. If the O’s select him to the roster at any point, they will only have to pay him the prorated major league minimum salary, with that amount subtracted from what the Yankees pay.
Baltimore recently placed both Jorge Mateo and Jordan Westburg on the injured list, subtracting two pieces of their infield mix. Prospect Coby Mayo is up covering third base now but has six strikeouts and no hits through his first 12 plate appearances. Ramón Urías is there as well but he isn’t having a strong season, hitting .238/.310/.370 for a wRC+ of 96 with -3 Defensive Runs Saved and -6 Outs Above Average.
If Davis can get into good form and Mayo keeps struggling, the veteran could be a low cost fix to the problem for the O’s. Davis will presumably report to Triple-A Norfolk in the coming days and get some regular at-bats, something that he’s had difficulty finding this year.
What’s he got on his fastball?
Exactly what inwas thinking the Os needed, another infielder! Lol, wow.
Maybe the Tigers will place Skubal on waivers?!?! That may have been Elias’ trade deadline strategy. We’ll see!
Big silly comment
Boom, roasted!
What are you talking about? First Skubal was never being traded – or were you in the group that was saying “trade every prospect you have for 18 months of a pitcher” ?
Second Elias landed, in Eflin, the best pitcher that was actually traded. Rogers is harder to judge but they got him for 2.5 years and must think they see something that can be fixed. He said yesterday he’s already learned more in a week than in the rest of his career.
Dominguez was a solid get. Soto has obviously sucked but his body of work clearly suggests that he’s much better than this.
Amazing to me that anyone can be critical of Elias at this point. They have the most wins in baseball in 23 and 24 AND this team is so young he doesn’t have to and shouldn’t bet everything on winning it all this year.
Look the injuries suck – they were 41-16 in games started by Burnes, Grayson, Means Bradish and Eflin and they are 5 below 500 in the rest. It’s brutal that 2 of them and most likely 3 of them are gone now, but you can’t fix that at the trade deadline.
So you’re saying that coming into the season you were relying on Bradish and Means?
And of course you can fix it at the trade deadline, what are you talking about? Even if you thought by some miracle Bradish and Means were going to make it through the season (which NO ONE thought at the start of the season), you knew for sure that they weren’t at the trade deadline. Eflin is fine, but Rogers was NOT an upgrade.
I’m not sure how serious a RIGHT lat strain is for a left handed pitcher honestly, but assuming he does come back, you still needed another top end starter to feel good. And yes, I am DEFINITELY in the camp that the Os could have gotten whatever starter they wanted at the deadline, since they STILL have the number 1 farm system in the league.
If they don’t win this post season because of a lack of starting pitching, then it will be 100% because they were too scared to trade from their system.
I see Big Hurt is angry yelling about his crystal ball here, too. Nonsense upon nonsense.
Not sure that Eflin is any better than Blackburn, Fedde, and Flaherty.
Still a nice pickup, however.
Grayson Rodriguez! Left-handed? What are you talking about? Roasted!!!
Well, he’s won each of his two starts as an Oriole, going 6+ innings in both!
Eflin is certainly better than Paul Blackburn. I’ll take him over Fedde & Flaherty back to Baltimore wasn’t going to happen.
Don’t be mad at me SSS, be mad at your GM. No crystal ball needed, I made these same arguments here with Cease, and all the Os apologists jumped in and argued that you had a marvelous rotation and no need to worry.
It didn’t take genius to know that Bradish and Means were huge risks, and Cole Irvin / Dean Kremer would struggle to fill key roles. Now, its a crystal ball to say that Rogers was a ridiculous trade and a huge price when going all in with the best farm system could have given you the WS?
I think Eflin is a good 4 and good pickup. But that assumed the first 3 were Burnes, Rodriguez and Skubal/Crochet (even Flaherty). As is, there’s trouble and it wasnt hard to see this coming both in spring teaining and at the deadline.
Yeah, my bad on the left-handed thing :).
So has Blackburn with the Mets, including last night in Denver.
Small sample size.
Definitely not better than this year’s Flaherty , but I think this year is an outlier for Flaherty
This year is definitely an outlier for Flaherty. I’m certain of it.
Nonsense again. Angry yelling at the moon.
You’ve got me wrong my friend. I’m relishing the sweet justice, definitely not angry.
Oh, then just an azzwhole, got it
Ask the Marlins, since you sat around fantasizing about me for 12 days. Moron.
Why is the h*ll would you care about if the Marlins are happy?? Do you want to win a trade but lose in the playoffs again? Or improve your team enough to feel good about the postseason?
All you Os fans seem to be more concerned with the quality of the Norfolk roster than actually building a WS winner.
Ew
Did you say that same thing for Ohearn? Elias was w/ the Stros when Davis was drafted. At the very least we needed to backfill AAA with all the trades we made & the 2 MLB injuries. Makes sense if Mayo proves he isn’t ready yet.
Welp, I guess they’ve seen enough of Mayo for now.
Surprised they didn’t try mustard or ketchup before signing Davis
Just stop. Did you actually think the kid was going to come up from AAA and light it up? He’s going to follow the same path as most 22 year olds – struggle for 2 months and then start to contribute. The only issue is they don’t have two months and they lost one of their most important bats. Having cheap options is smart.
Which is probably why he said “for now.” Implying that he will get another shot later or even next season.
Absolutely. Mayo is a great prospect, but with the O’s in a pennant race it’s smart to stock on vets. Not a ton of time to give to the kids if they’re not producing.
They always give up on young players after 4-5 games.
just a little hyperbole there
Yankees chances of winning division tick up.
Welcome to the show, Sun Bear!
Gotta be a minor league deal
In the article!
Not originally!
J.D Davis sure gets a lot of pub for a guy who’ll be DFA’d in a matter of weeks.
It’s because of his time with the Mets under their PR machine. The guy has always been a scrub, but supposedly was a stud when he had that Mets jersey on. If you doubt it, look at Syndergaard, Matt Harvey and the many other overrated scrubs they had that people kept giving them a lot of pub for due to wearing the orange and blue and that PR machine.
Your right they kinda sound like they fit better with the Fish honestly
BMFB: Before he got injured, Harvey was one of the NL’s best pitchers, and he started the 2013 all-star game.
He and Syndergaard helped carry the Mets to a pennant in 2015.
Sorry if that doesn’t fit your biased agenda.
@Blue Baron
“Five Aces”!
How’d that turn out? Most overrated pitching staff in the last 50 years. Many other pitching staffs had more achievements.
It turned out as it turned out and life has continued as we know it.
What harm did any of it cause you?
Jeez, man. You got it real hard for the Mets. Harvey was great until the injuries and so was Syndergaard.
Davis never any love in NY. Not saying he deserved it, but I didn’t see a hype machine with him.
It wouldn’t shock me if that was why they were banned before and the sad thing is they made another email and came back just to keep trolling.
O’s and NYY could have picked up Ibanez for LHPs. He rakes against lefties.
Wow, they really love our discarded refuse. Slater and now Davis? Guess they’ve thrown in the towel on 2024!
Says the man whose team took on our discarded trash Mike Baumann and Ryan McKenna!
Hey, I ain’t saying we don’t do that. We’re the undisputed kings of gobbling up garbage only to dump it later.
Didn’t the Giants also pick up Hunter Harvey on waivers initially?
Look at what a Yankees discarded player named Hicks did for them last year.
Where is Hicks anyways?
I used think JD Davis had the worst agent, but now I’m starting to think the guy is a genius who had this entire season plotted out to land his client on the Orioles. Brilliant.
if JD’s agent was to land his client to a minor league contract, he sure has low goals in life.
It’s all part of his master plan.
MacGromit: It’s all that was available, or he would’ve signed somewhere else. Davis doesn’t have much left and is probably done after this season.
As Annie Savoy said in “Bull Durham,” ya gotta respect a ballplayer just trying to finish the season.
Crash Davis, JD Davis. Same difference.
Panic mode has set in
Not really, it’s just a depth signing.
He’s going to Norfolk.
Interesting little depth signing.
Anyway…
Very little.
Davis doesn’t appear to have much left, and I can’t see him getting many at-bats in Baltimore.
Remember that small select group of Giants fans that didn’t think Matt Chapman was much of an upgrade over Davis?
Now sign Vogelbach. Think of how lit the comment section will be!
A nice no risk pick up. His best days are likely behind him and I’m not sure his glove is any better at third at this point than Mayo’s, but he is currently better than the other options they have available. if they want to send Mayo down.
Likely? No, definitely.