The NC Dinos of the Korea Baseball Organization are re-signing infielder Matt Davidson to a $1.5MM deal with a club option for 2026 valued at $1.7MM (h/t Jeeho Yoo of Yonhap News).
Davidson, 34, first signed with the Dinos back in January. Once a first-round pick in the 2009 draft by the Diamondbacks and a regular on top-100 prospect lists in the early 2010s, Davidson has appeared in parts of six big league seasons but has never quite been successful in establishing himself in the majors. He played just 31 games total at the big league level for Arizona. While he hit a decent .237/.333/.434 in that time, he was shipped to Chicago in the deal that brought Addison Reed to the Diamondbacks the following offseason.
After arriving in Chicago, Davidson was relegated to the minor leagues in the first few years of his time with the organization, where he hit quite well; the slugger is a career .253/.335/.479 hitter at the Triple-A level and demonstrated 20-homer power for the club’s Triple-A affiliate in Charlotte. He received semi-regular playing time with the White Sox from 2017 to 2018 and hit a respectable .224/.291/.435 with 46 home runs during that time, though he also struck out at an untenable 35.1% clip. Since the end of the 2018 season, Davidson has appeared in just 33 games at the big league level. Most recently, he hit .167/.167/.292 in an eight-game stint with the Athletics in 2022.
2023 saw Davidson head overseas to try his hand at playing baseball in Asia, though he initially did not head to the KBO. First, he went to Japan to play for Nippon Professional Baseball’s Hiroshima Carp. He hit a middling .224/.288/.452 overall in 117 games for the Carp. While he slugged 21 homers, his high strikeout rates and lackluster on-base percentage led the club to part ways with him. That led him to the Dinos, and his first season in Korea could’ve hardly gone better. While serving as his club’s primary first baseman, Davidson slashed an excellent .306/.370/.633 in 131 games. He slugged a KBO-leading 46 homers, and his 1.003 OPS ranked third in the league.
That dominant performance clearly got the Dinos’ attention, and they were quick to lock him up for the next two seasons after his power helped to keep the team somewhat competitive during a disappointing 61-81 season. While Davidson’s deal guaranteed him just $700K last winter, this year he’s been guaranteed more than double that figure and could earn more than $3MM total over the life of the contract if the option for next year is picked up. Given Davidson’s age, it’s unclear whether attempting a comeback in the majors could be in the cards for him when his contract with the Dinos ends, though if he continues hitting as he did last year he could follow in the footsteps of Eric Thames and look to revive his stateside career after years of posting otherworldly numbers in KBO play.
never heard of this guy, looked at his stats… Back to back 20 homer seasons? damn. thats impressive
In 2024, Davidson was Dino-mite!
.306/.633/1.003 – 46 homeruns
yeah you can say that agin
Had that legendary run against the Royals. Also filmed a creepy Halloween type video for the scoreboard feed
Three HRs against KC on opening day 2008, 7 HRs in the first 4 games vs KC that April. Like Lorde, a big fan of Royals. Also had a perfect 0.00 E.RA in 3 appearances that season. Matt Davidson: the first Shohei!
He got hit by pitch 17 times so he somehow hit more homers than he drew walks. He should continue to crush the ball in the KBO, though maybe he’ll be in the 30-35 homer range next year
46 dingerz would get you more than 1.5 million here in the states.
Kbo is like double A level baseball dude that’s why he hit 46hr. KBO avg fastball is 88mph. Way lower than Japan and MLB that’s why he was awful in both leagues
But did he pitch?
Wondered the same thing. He had some heat and figured he might get a few innings in over in Korea.
He probably got an offer from the White Sox which prompted him to respond, “You know, I think I’m good with another year in Korea.”
Thought he was going to be a guy for the Sox. Former futures game MVP and a 1st round pick. 28 HR’s first full season was a nice start. Looked like he was gonna make a comeback avg 30 home runs in minors 19’, 21’ and 22’.
I didn’t realize how much he was in the twilight of his MLB career at that point, but I was sitting on the Monster in 2022 and he hit an absolute missile over everything. Could hear the ball hissing from the SRO seats.