Infielder J.D. Davis is returning to the Angels, per Jon Heyman of The New York Post. It’s a minor league deal, per Sam Blum of The Athletic. He had been designated for assignment by the Halos earlier this week. According to his transactions tracker at MLB.com, he was outrighted to Triple-A but elected free agency. Now it seems he has circled back to the Angels on a fresh pact.
Davis, 32, signed a minor league deal with the Angels in the winter. He hit .297/.357/.486 in ten Triple-A games before getting called up to the big leagues when Yoán Moncada landed on the injured list. The team didn’t use Davis much, sending him to the plate just nine times in almost three weeks on the roster before he was designated for assignment.
The upside with Davis is that he’s capable of providing strong offense. From 2019 to 2023, he hit 63 home runs in 1,804 plate appearances. His 27.4% strikeout rate was high but he walked at a strong 10.2% pace. The overall result was a combined .268/.352/.443 batting line for those years, production which led to a 119 wRC+. He did so while moving between third base, first base and left field, though he was only really close to an average fielder at first.
The past year-plus has been a bit challenging, however. He and the Giants went to an arbitration hearing in the 2023-24 offseason. Davis filed at $6.9MM and the team at $6.5MM, with the arbiter eventually choosing the player’s side. Arbitration salaries determined by a hearing are not fully guaranteed, so the Giants put Davis on waivers and released him after signing Matt Chapman to take over at third base. Davis collected about $1.11MM in termination pay and went to the open market.
He landed a new deal with the Athletics, one that guaranteed him $2.5MM, making up some of the money he lost from the shenanigans with the Giants. However, his tenure in Oakland was interrupted by a right adductor strain. He was later flipped to the Yankees but hit the IL with that club as well, due to an illness. He was eventually cut loose by the Yanks and finished the year on a minor league deal with the Orioles.
He didn’t hit especially well last year around those IL stints, producing a combined .218/.293/.338 line and 86 wRC+. He’s not a strong defender at third and isn’t a threat on the bases, so he doesn’t have much value when he’s not hitting. That’s surely why he had to settle for a minor league deal with the Halos heading into this year. Dating back to the start of 2024, Davis has a .212/.283/.325 line, which isn’t great. However, that’s a fairly small sample of 166 plate appearances while bouncing around to different clubs and battling injuries.
The Angels don’t have much certainty at the infield corners. They have Nolan Schanuel and Luis Rengifo taking the regular playing time at first and third respectively, but neither is having a great season. Rengifo is also capable of playing other positions. Tim Anderson and Kevin Newman are on the roster as bench infielders but Newman is mostly a middle infield guy while Anderson has only ever played up the middle. Newman has also never been a great hitter while Anderson is a few years removed from being productive at the plate. First baseman Niko Kavadas has just 30 games of major league experience.
Davis will head to Salt Lake and try to get into a groove for the first time in a while. As he does that, he’ll provide the Halos with a bit of extra depth at the infield corners and try to earn his way back to the big leagues.
Photo courtesy of Rick Scuteri, Imagn Images
In other news, Wayne Randazzo broadcaster on the Apple TV+ MLB games just said that Kyle Tucker has hit 5 grand slams with the bases loaded.
Sheesh.
Next stat, how many bases Tucker steals when he beats the throw to the base.
Or how many hits consecutively in a row.
Randazzo is pretty good.
You, not so much, Mr. Perfect.
Garbage team with a Garbage owner
The team is hard to watch right now. At the moment, they resemble a AAA team more so than a MLB team. I know that as a player it sucks to lose in the fashion that they have in the last couple of weeks and as a fan, it’s very disheartening. It’s complete failure on both sides of the ball with players apparently regressing. Put JD on the field. He can’t do any worse.
The Angels have been hard to watch for 11 years.
Come get a taste
never understood why moncada got a major league contract
@eeddiiee909. Moancada for 5 million is the least of the angels worries. He’s actually not bad when he’s on the field.
In other Angels news the bullpen imploded again tonight with an 8 run 9th with Jansen giving up his first runs of the year, ballooning his ERA over 6
Can’t believe how bad this team has been and continues to be. At some point, the owner needs to do the fans a favor and sell the team to someone who cares about winning.
Why should he? His only priority is making money. Home attendance this season is averaging 36,000 per game. He and his wallet are as happy as two peas in a pod. He has no incentive to sell or improve the organization.
He’s also said would only considering selling the team if someone made him a stupidly over-value offer. He’s holding fans hostage.