The Orioles announced this morning that left-hander Tucker Davidson, whom they designated for assignment on the final day of the regular season, elected free agency rather than accepting an outright assignment to Triple-A Norfolk.
A former top prospect with the Braves, Davidson bounced to the Angels and Royals before landing with the O’s for the 2024 season. He posted 4 2/3 scoreless frames in the majors this year, albeit with two walks against just one strikeout. The bulk of his season was spent in Norfolk, where he logged 115 2/3 innings with a 3.89 ERA, 20.7% strikeout rate, a 9.1% walk rate and a 45.7% ground-ball rate.
The 28-year-old Davidson split his time in Norfolk between the rotation and the bullpen, faring far better in the former. While his numbers as a starter were passable — 4.48 ERA, 18.5% strikeout rate, 9.1% walk rate — he was much more successful coming out of the ’pen. In 44 relief innings, he notched a 2.45 ERA, 23% strikeout rate and 9.2% walk rate. As a starter, opponents batted .266/.336/.431 against Davidson this season. They flailed away at a .195/.263/.335 pace when he was pitching in relief.
Davidson will turn 29 in March. To this point in his big league career, he’s posted a 5.76 ERA in 129 2/3 innings. Certainly, that’s not an exciting profile, but there’s reason for cautious optimism moving forward. His work in relief this year was strong, and the brief MLB look he had with the Orioles featured a vary different pitch mix than he’s had in seasons past. Davidson has traditionally focused on a four-seam/slider combination, mixing in an occasional curveball as a change of pace. The Orioles had him scale back the usage of both his four-seamer and slider while adding a sinker and splitter that he used about 12% of the time each.
In all likelihood, Davidson will still be looking for a minor league deal this winter, but a former top prospect on the right side of 30 with solid Triple-A numbers and a tweaked pitch mix creates more intrigue than many other minor league free agents. He’ll be an option for clubs seeking rotation and bullpen depth alike.
A 5.13 career SIERA? Wow! Maybe a lower level like Korea or Taipei would suit him better.
Siera? Never heard of her.
SIERA? I hardly knew her.
Far better in the latter (relief ) than the former ( rotation).
nobody wants this dude lol.
Well clearly they do because he keeps getting picked up.
and dropped
And once he’s dropped he gets picked up by a different team. That suggests that teams do indeed want him as depth, they just don’t value him highly. If nobody wanted him he would be out of baseball altogether, but he keeps hanging on.
Big news like this should wait until after the postseason
Davidson, AAAA player. Most definitely going to just be a minor league signing — in which case anyone can sign him for random depth and if you need him, you have worse troubles.
Tigers will fix him.
Braves ruined him starting him in a World Series game and he got destroyed .
@MFF
If he’s that fragile that a single game would “ruin him”, he should probably think about a nice career at JoAnn Fabrics.