First baseman Ike Davis is on track to find a new destination in short order, Ken Davidoff of the New York Post reports on Twittter. It’s expected that he’ll have to settle for a minor league deal, per the report.
The Yankees are among the teams in the mix for Davis, who’ll turn 29 before the coming season. New York recently lost one left-handed bench bat option in Greg Bird, and Davis could fill a similar niche for the coming season if the club decides to carry such a player as a complement to Mark Teixeira at first and Alex Rodriguez in the DH role.
It isn’t clear what other organizations may have interest, though it’s possible to imagine the Brewers, Astros, Orioles, Rockies, and Rays giving some consideration to a player like Davis for depth, flexibility, and competition. It’s been a quiet winter for Davis, who was non-tendered at offseason’s outset by the Athletics after projecting to command a $3.8MM payday in his final season of arbitration eligibility.
Davis disappointed in his only season in Oakland, putting up a .229/.301/.350 slash with just three home runs in 239 plate appearances. He had at least produced at a slightly above-average rate in his prior year, most of which was spent with the Pirates, and has always been seen as an intriguing talent.
After all, in his age-23 through 25 campaigns — back when he was viewed as a potential long-term piece for the Mets — Davis ran up a .252/.336/.461 batting line and contributed 58 home runs over 1,334 plate appearances. It may be wishful thinking to hope for a return to that level of production, but he’s still fairly youthful and looks to be a worthwhile risk on a minors deal.
Rockies have been my pick for Davis, minor league deal with incentives. LH power still sells at the deadline too.
Unless of course your name is Pedro Alvarez who can’t catch a beach ball.
Unless of course your name is Pedro Alvarez who can’t catch a beach ball…..or throw one accurately.
Can anyone throw a beach ball accurately?
point taken….he’ll never have the chance anyway since a baseball represents a major challenge anyway.
Hard to believe a 30 home run guy still sits without a team. Poor Pedro.
Not saying he is all that great. After all.. Some teams will field far less capable DH’s in the AL than him and the excuse some teams are giving, that they will rotate the position out to rest guys just doesn’t hold water when offense and power is down around the league.
Alvarez’s problem is his agent right now, bumbling around trying to con GM’s into thinking the guy can actually play 1b better than what they currently have, ditto 3b and THEN probably pay him some outrageous figure to boot.
Had he a “normal” agent, showed up at both the GM and winter meetings and pushed himself as a DH who could fill in as a 1b? Maybe could have signed long ago for 3..Tops 4m. Boras will see to it he’s not signed by mid march now.
Boros was both the best and worst thing that ever happened to Pedro.
Would be a good pick up for the Indians, they need 1B depth. The Indians would be able to keep Aguilar in the minors all season after using his final option. Davis would give the Indians protection at 1B if Santana and/or Napoli gets injured.
He should be given a bullpen job, the best reliever from the 2015 A’s bullpen.
Talk about a guy who just fell off….reminds me of Ben Grieve.
Or Jerome Walton
Too bad the Yankees let Kevin Long go. He would be the perfect coach to try and fix Davis. With Teixeira spending time on the dl every year Davis would be a smart addition. He can’t be any worse than Lyle Overbay in 2013. I bet Ike can beat a 333 slg and an ops+ of 84 playing in Yankee stadium. Hopefully, he will take a minor league deal. I would really like to see the Yankees go an entire offseason without signing a major league contract.
From the early years of watching Davis with the mets, he wants nothing to do with coaches telling him how he should play. I was on team Duda from the beginning, took a lot of garbage for it, and look where we are now. Yeah Duda isn’t the greatest by a long shot, but at least he is a starting first basemen with some pop. Davis, well he still isn’t listening to coaches because he knows best. Kevin long wouldn’t be able to get through to him just as any mets pirates and Oakland coaches couldn’t get through to him.