The Pirates signed Noah Davis to a minor league deal earlier this week, as per Davis’ MLB.com profile page. The right-hander elected minor league free agency in October, qualifying for the status due to multiple career outright assignments and not being added back to the Twins’ 40-man roster after being outrighted in September.
After making his MLB debut in the form of a single inning of work for the Rockies during the 2022 season, Davis has now played in each of the last four Major League seasons, albeit with not a ton more playing time than that initial cup-of-coffee appearance. Davis has 27 games and 62 1/3 innings under his belt, with a 9.53 ERA, 18.5% strikeout rate, and 9.2% walk rate.
A lot of the damage has come from the long ball, as Davis has given up a whopping 17 home runs in his 62 1/3 IP. Ten of those 17 homers came during Davis’ three seasons in Colorado, and he then allowed seven more runs over 11 innings with the Dodgers and Twins in 2025. The right-hander actually began the 2025 season with the Red Sox on a minor league contract, but Los Angeles swung a trade for Davis in late March, and then designated him for assignment in July. Minnesota then claimed Davis off waivers but things didn’t do any better for the righty in Minnesota, and he finished his 2025 campaign an 18.00 ERA.
Now entering his age-29 season, Davis also doesn’t have great numbers in Triple-A or even in Double-A, though 2025 marked the first time he’d been utilized almost exclusively as a reliever. The results were better, with Davis posting a 3.88 ERA, 26K%, and 11.5BB% across 48 2/3 innings and 35 appearances with the Dodgers’ and Twins’ Triple-A affiliates.
While this improvement hasn’t translated to success against big league batters, Davis’ possible upside as a reliever was enough to get the Pirates interested in a look during Spring Training. Between Pittsburgh’s recent success in producing arms and new pitching coach Bill Murphy’s track record with the Astros, there’s some reason to believe Davis might be a late bloomer with some help from the Buccos’ pitching development team.
Noah’s a good guy to have when you’re taking on water.
But he gives up runs two-by-two.
This is better than the smothers brothers!
He was kind of fun to watch in the sense it was like batting practice while he was pitching.
Noah Davis has a couple of all-time stats. His career ERA is the worst by any MLB pitcher with at least 60 IP since 1890. He’s also never pitched in a game his team won. He’s gotten into 27 games, and his team is 0-27 in those games.
My goodness those are some sad stats…
Fake stats. He was bad but nowhere close to historically. Just extremely unlucky.
The 27 games and 0-27 is not fake…I have no way of verifying the 60+ IP, 9.53 ERA being the worst since 1890 though. So I must label your comment “Fake comment.”
Sooooo…I went to fangraphs and yup Noah Davis has the 2nd worst ERA in all of history for pitchers with 60+ iP at 9.53. The only one worse was Charlie Stecher who pitched one season 1890 68IP 10.32 ERA.
AI GM gets the much coveted “Say Anything” MLBTR comment award for January 12th 2026.
delanoche gets a kuddo’s for statification to the max!
Stecher. Yeah. Remember him well. I think he ended up with the Hiroshima Fighting Carp, around 1894
Yep, the kind of guy you want to add on before he goes to Asia
So the Pirates pretty much signed the worst guy ever..
Amazing
You know, normally I’d rake them over the coals for this kind of signing. But they actually went out and got some players so far and I hope they’re not done. So I dunno. I guess I’ll sit in the corner and just look amused
As long as they sign Suarez they can do whatever the else they want
He was on a World Series winning team. Briefly.
He also should be getting a World Series ring.
Noah Davis ERA 9.53 is on him, but the 0-27 basically means the manager used him almost entirely in mop up. The bigger question, as far as the team record, was he ever used in a game where the team had a lead. As he does not hit, he could not contribute to coming from behind to win any games if he was used exclusively in games they trailed.
He started 6 games for COL in 2023, not as an opener. In his first start in 2023, he went 5 IP with 0 R allowed and COL lost 1-0 at SEA. In his 2nd start in 2023, COL jumped to a 3-0 lead in the first and Noah (the most researched pitcher in MLBTR history) went 4.2 IP giving up 2 R 1 ER, but PHI came back to win 4-3. On 8/13/24 he registered a hold against ARI, but ARI walked off COL 4-3 in 9. 2025? First game for LAD, he enter 10B and gives up walk off single on one pitch 4/23 against the Cubs. Next day he registers a BS against the Cubs…For MIN on 8/4 he registers a BS/L against DET. He must be a real nice guy, good teammate, have good stuff, etc etc etc
Assumes – …so if he had some run support, he would have been credited with at least a few wins. He would absolutely have a bad record and ERA, but 0-27 is a factor of the defense, bullpen, and lack of run support.
Thanks for posting some very interesting stats!
You’re welcome, I like the weird stats and 0-27 team record is about as weird/rare as they come. Congrats to the BoSox landing Ranger Saurez (assuming you’re Sox fan), time to let the O’s win a WS okay? been since 1983!
If hes coming in for mop up he wouldnt get the Loss
Depth BP pitcher at worst. as long as he’s not getting a 40 man spot, might as well give it a shot.
Can say that about anyone
A+ something to work with here.
Something to do for the new pitching staff.
Maybe they plan on having him pitch batting practice to the lineup to get them in a groove.
as bad as he is, he could probably still strike out Cruz on 3 pitches
I actually appreciate a great deal of AI’s insights. Sure, he’s got some odd fascination with Thai Ladyboys but he has a wealth of knowledge, especially when it comes to minor leaguers or kids who get drafted
I would rather ignore/mute you.
Dream is a knowledgeable baseball enthusiast
2728-With all due respect we are much more aware of AI GM’s posts than you are.
That post and the subsequent A+ one are quite often made with some degree of sarcasm.
He does not fit our definition of a troll as Washed and TheMan and I have seen many of them as Pirates fans over the last several years.