Infielder J.D. Davis is returning to the Angels, per Jon Heyman of The New York Submit. It’s a minor league deal, per Sam Blum of The Athletic. He had been designated for project by the Halos earlier this week. In keeping with his transactions tracker at MLB.com, he was outrighted to Triple-A however elected free company. Now it appears he has circled again to the Angels on a recent pact.
Davis, 32, signed a minor league cope with the Angels within the winter. He hit .297/.357/.486 in ten Triple-A video games earlier than getting referred to as as much as the large leagues when Yoán Moncada landed on the injured checklist. The group didn’t use Davis a lot, sending him to the plate simply 9 occasions in virtually three weeks on the roster earlier than he was designated for project.
The upside with Davis is that he’s able to offering sturdy offense. From 2019 to 2023, he hit 63 house runs in 1,804 plate appearances. His 27.4% strikeout fee was excessive however he walked at a powerful 10.2% tempo. The general outcome was a mixed .268/.352/.443 batting line for these years, manufacturing which led to a 119 wRC+. He did so whereas transferring between third base, first base and left subject, although he was solely actually near a mean fielder at first.
The previous year-plus has been a bit difficult, nevertheless. He and the Giants went to an arbitration listening to within the 2023-24 offseason. Davis filed at $6.9MM and the group at $6.5MM, with the arbiter finally selecting the participant’s facet. Arbitration salaries decided by a listening to should not totally assured, so the Giants put Davis on waivers and launched 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 brand new cope with the Athletics, one which assured him $2.5MM, making up a number of the cash he misplaced from the shenanigans with the Giants. Nonetheless, his tenure in Oakland was interrupted by a proper adductor pressure. He was later flipped to the Yankees however hit the IL with that membership as nicely, as a consequence of an sickness. He was finally lower unfastened by the Yanks and completed the 12 months on a minor league cope with the Orioles.
He didn’t hit particularly nicely final 12 months round these IL stints, producing a mixed .218/.293/.338 line and 86 wRC+. He’s not a powerful defender at third and isn’t a menace on the bases, so he doesn’t have a lot worth when he’s not hitting. That’s absolutely why he needed to accept a minor league cope with the Halos heading into this 12 months. Courting again to the beginning of 2024, Davis has a .212/.283/.325 line, which isn’t nice. Nonetheless, that’s a reasonably small pattern of 166 plate appearances whereas bouncing round to totally different golf equipment and battling accidents.
The Angels don’t have a lot certainty on the infield corners. They’ve Nolan Schanuel and Luis Rengifo taking the common enjoying time at first and third respectively, however neither is having an amazing season. Rengifo can also be able to enjoying different positions. Tim Anderson and Kevin Newman are on the roster as bench infielders however Newman is generally a center infield man whereas Anderson has solely ever performed up the center. Newman has additionally by no means been an amazing hitter whereas Anderson is just a few years faraway from being productive on the plate. First baseman Niko Kavadas has simply 30 video games of main league expertise.
Davis will head to Salt Lake and attempt to get right into a groove for the primary time shortly. As he does that, he’ll present the Halos with a bit of additional depth on the infield corners and attempt to earn his method again to the large leagues.
Photograph courtesy of Rick Scuteri, Imagn Photos
