The Mariners have signed outfielder Brennen Davis to a minor league deal, as reported by Aram Leighton of Just Baseball. The deal includes an invite to MLB Spring Training.
Once a consensus top-20 prospect in baseball, the 26-year-old Davis has yet to make his MLB debut. A second-round pick by the Cubs back in 2018, Davis broke out at the age of 19 in 2019 with a with a .305/.381/.525 slash line in 50 games at the Single-A level. Following the cancelled minor league season in 2020, Davis got the bump to High-A to start the 2021 season but lasted just eight games at the level before being promoted to Double-A. After hitting a solid .252/.367/.474 for the Cubs’ Tennessee affiliate in 76 games, Davis got his second promotion of the year with a late-season cup of coffee at Triple-A, where he impressed with a .268/.397/.536 slash line in 16 games.
All of that was enough to position Davis as one of the game’s most exciting prospects, and he seemed poised to make his MLB debut during the 2022 season as the Cubs began a rebuilding phase following their fire sale the prior year that shipped out core players like Anthony Rizzo, Kris Bryant, and Javier Baez. Unfortunately for Davis, however, those dreams of an early debut were scuttled when he struggled badly in the early weeks of the season before undergoing back surgery in early May of that year. While he returned before the end of the year from that surgery and posted solid on-base numbers, a lack of power kept him from earning a coveted September call-up.
By 2023, the Cubs were once again trying to make the playoffs and had a mostly full outfield thanks to the offseason addition of Cody Bellinger. That made Davis’s path to the big leagues a bit harder, and he was unable to force the issue due to continued injury woes. Core surgery and a fractured ankle limited him over the next two seasons, and even when he did play the field results at Triple-A were mixed. That led Chicago to non-tender Davis last November, cutting him from the 40-man roster and sending him into free agency.
He found a minor league pact with the Yankees this past year. He didn’t debut with his new organization until late May as he rehabbed the aforementioned fractured ankle, and suffered another injury over the summer that caused him to miss two months. In all, he made it into just 36 games with New York’s Triple-A affiliate, but when he did so he raked with an excellent .271/.324/.576 slash line including 12 home runs in just 142 trips to the plate.
While injuries have led him to stop stealing bases as he had when he was a top prospect vaunted for his speed, the 26-year-old still offers intriguing power and could be an impactful addition to the Mariners organization if he can finally remain healthy for a full season for the first time in half a decade. Seattle’s outfield mix currently features Julio Rodriguez in center, flanked by Randy Arozarena and Victor Robles in the corners. If Davis can prove himself healthy and remain as effective as he’s looking in short bursts the past two years, it wouldn’t be hard to see him pushing for a call-up to the majors at some point this year.
Yankees or Mariners?
Mariners
As soon as I saw the typo I thought this must be a Nick Deeds article and sure enough it was….
The first question that needs to be asked is did he hurt himself signing the contract? Stab himself with the pen? Get lead poisoning? Worse yet stab himself in the eye? 10 minutes after signing his new deal he was placed on the IL according to sources.
Typo in the first sentence – it should read “Mariners” instead of “Yankees”
Wrong link. Here is the right one: baseball-reference.com/register/player.fcgi?id=dav…
Tanks mane
Yankees?
Did the Yankees sign an OF/RP from Lewis & Clark College, or did the Mariners sign a former Cubs OF?
The Mariners signed the former Cubs outfielder.
This poster attends baseball games at Lewis & Clark College where the other Brennen Davis played the last four seasons.
My nephew plays ball there – Toby Strawser
Cool. It’s a good school that upgraded its baseball diamond a few years back.
“Mariners Sign Brennen Davis To Minor League Deal
December 20th, 2025 at 2:57pm CST • By Nick Deeds
The Yankees have signed outfielder Brennen Davis to a minor league deal.. ”
Stop commenting on BleacherNation and focus on your job.
It could happen to anywhere.
Anyone can use the wrong word , at least they should have the humidity to admit it.
OMG no no what is Cashman doing now. This better be a mistake. Haha.
I smell a World Series ring!
28 HR in 105 games in the Yankees system. If someone can find a way to get this guy to make better contact, he could still pan out.
more like find crazy glue to keep him in one piece.
I don’t care too much about a player’s K%, but a 30% clip in AAA isn’t going to translate well in MLB unless he’s a legit 35+ homer threat in his sleep. He also doesn’t draw enough walks. Plus his injuries are really piling up so it’s hard to say if he’ll get to keep playing much longer. This is just a tiny move to fill out the early spring training roster, and if he makes the team in April then something has gone very wrong for the Mariners.
They should put asterisks in front of minor league deals to protect our tickers from unnecessary excitement when we see our team in a headline
Y’all really need to proofread your articles before posting them.
He could ask an older sibling to look over his crayon draft before posting.
He gets paid minimum wage, what do you expect?
Minimum effort, as in: making sure the information is correct before uploading it is the bare minimum.
Nick, you have had an hour to peruse the comments, yet you have yet to fix your mistake, you partaking in a bit of Holiday cheer???
Wow, the comments here are rough. Do you all hold yourself to these same standards when you are doing your jobs?
First of all, if your job is to post baseball news, then proofreading your articles to make sure they’re accurate definitely should be a huge part of that. Whether you’re writing for a local blog or working for ESPN, get the facts straight. Second, if I mess up at my carpentry job, myself and/or other people could get gravely injured so yeah, I absolutely hold myself to a high standard.
As a lifelong daily newspaper journalist I can tell you that accuracy is the foundation of credibility, which is crucial to the job.
As Reachers says “detail matter”
Do you expect the prices to be right when you shop at the store? Do you expect the shipping to be accurate when you send something to a loved one across the country? Do you expect to get a love seat when you ordered a sofa? You better hold yourself to better standards. The customer is the one who’s paying you.
I didn’t get past the first two sentences then went straight to the comments where I learned all I needed on this bit of news.
MLBTR was trying to distract you all from the Epstein files and most of you fell for it.
And all it took was the word “Yankees”.
Idiots!
Seriously I’m literally laughing. What?
AAA depth. He’s a loooooooong shot for a call up. Others ahead of him in depth charts
Mariners have no DH and a huge question mark in what they’ll get from Robles. They’re one injury to Julio/Randy away from being desperate for OF help.
I think this guy has a chance at a call up, but you are selling Canzone and Raley a bit short here.
Raley had a 125 OPS+ in ’23 and ’24 before his dud year last year.
Canzone had a 142 OPS+ in 2025, before his dud playoffs.
They aren’t stars, and neither has proven they can hit lefties, but they join Robles (and Raleigh*) in the way of Brennen’s DH and RF at bats.
*Raleigh will DH about 25% of the time, because no one should catch more than 120 games, but the M’s rely on his bat.
They’re not really in dire shape in the outfield. Between Raley, Robles, and post-breakout Canzone they have a very effective RF pile to mix-and-match from. Raley can cover all 3 positions and can give them average production, so can Robles if properly platooned. The utility player pile of Rivas, Bliss, and Mastrobuoni can be converted in a pinch as well. That’s also not mentioning the fact that they’re heavily rumored to be after Brendan Donovan, who’s capable of playing everywhere besides catcher. I hope they land another solid bat for the 3B/DH mix, like Suarez or one of the Japanese players, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they leave DH open for veterans like Cal and Randy to rest their legs.
To your point, just about any team who loses one or more of their 4-6 WAR players for a significant length of time is going to struggle. You can’t reasonably expect to replace a player of Julio’s caliber unless you’re literally the Dodgers and spend half a billion dollars every year on a super team, or are the 2021 Braves who got really lucky after Acuna blew his knee out. That team had solid production all over the roster to absorb the loss.
Essentially, Davis is just depth chart filler and might not even make it out of spring training. A lot really has to go wrong before he gets the call.
Good luck Brennen, I hope you make it to the Show!
Tim, are you seeing these comments? This is not an isolated incident, nor under the pressure of a deadline.
Somehow I doubt Deedsy was the one who finally corrected THE FIRST SENTENCE of the article.
While most of the comments here seem to be expressions of frustration from the dateless dudes in this community venting their tension unfairly towards Nik, there was a really good, simple point that was made in his post….
Seattle’s outfield is very likely Arozarena-Julio-Robles at the moment, with the possibility of Raley (if he stays) facing RHPs if Robles struggles. Canzone is currently slotted as the DH.
It’s not ideal to have two LHHs (both outfielders defensively) needing platoon partners. Seattle would be wise to find impact at DH. Getting a second baseman would be great, too, but they could probably get away with DH and some sort of insurance for the corners. Then there’s a the bullpen, that has two glaring holes and an argument for a third arm.
Getting Ketel Marte would solve two issues: 2B and leadoff. Getting someone like Iván Herrera or Yandy Díaz to DH, and Miguel Andujar to cover the corners as needed would be huge.
It’s annoying seeing people whining about a simple faux pas that everyone makes on occasion. Life is too short to get worked up over crap like that. But it’s actually more annoying hearing the just-one-more-bat rhetoric for a team that was on the cusp of a World Series appearance for the first time in its history.
They need at least two and three would be better, plus tw0-three relievers including a right-handed leverage arm.
I have two friends named Nik, which my autocorrect apparently assumed was my intent, omitting the ‘c’ for me.
Unforgiveable. Feel free to take a jab at me for my lazy lack of attention.
Thanks for the sanity check. These guys, all of whom have ever erred in their lives… Ah, that’s the issue. If you have no life, then it’s easy to jump on someone who does.
Regardless of those clods, Davis is another player who had high expectations but who hasn’t made it – Jerry loves those kinds of guys. Low risk. Now, onto those 2 bats and another reliever.
Too bad he’s in the other league because he’d be another to come backagainst the cubs and haunt them.