May 28: Davis went unclaimed on waivers, per Matt Ehalt of Yahoo Sports (Twitter link). He’d have the option to reject an outright assignment in favor of free agency if he chooses.
May 26: The Mets have designated outfielder Rajai Davis for assignment, Anthony DiComo of MLB.com tweets. His 25-man roster spot will go to outfielder Michael Conforto, who’s back after a stint on the seven-day concussion injured list.
This marks a quick and unceremonious end to Davis’ time on the Mets’ 40-man roster, though they’re hopeful he’ll stay in the organization, per DiComo. New York selected Davis from Triple-A Syracuse on Wednesday, and the 38-year-old went on to belt a three-run home run in his first plate appearance with the team that night – a 6-1 win over the Nationals. Davis totaled another six trips to the plate in his ensuing three appearances, collecting one hit.
Davis’ bat has never been his main selling point, as he has largely mustered below-average offense across several stops since his major league career began in 2006. But Davis has often been an asset as a defender and especially as a base runner, having picked up 415 stolen bases in the majors. Despite his age, Davis has continued to show off his speed at Syracuse this season with 14 steals, and he’s only a year removed from swiping 21 bags with the Indians.
While it’s unfortunate for Davis that he’s entering DFA limbo, swapping him for Conforto is a massive upgrade for the Mets. Conforto batted a tremendous .271/.406/.521 (150 wRC+) with nine HRs in 180 PA before going on the IL. It proved to be a short absence for the 26-year-old Conforto, whose return is especially important to a Mets team that has recently lost notable offensive pieces Jeff McNeil, Brandon Nimmo and Robinson Cano to injuries.
What business model do the Mets practice?
hahahahaha. good one.
What should they have done? Left Conforto on the IL?
Getting Conforto back is huge and Davis is no loss at all.
bet this is the one OF the Giants dont persue
Rajai Davis is the Edwin Jackson of position players.
If he was still active, I’d say Kelly Johnson could be in that conversation too
IIRC I think Matt Stairs holds the record for position players
I’m not sure about Matt Stairs, but I know Kenny lofton was tied for the record at one point.
Matt Stairs = 12 teams, Kenny Lofton (& others) = 11 teams. Good memory.
Lol..good one
That belonged to milton Bradley. 9 teams in 10 years. Never stayed with 1 team more than a season and a half. Only signed as a free agent once. Otherwise he was traded 8 times.
Milton Bradley got tossed around because he had talent but equal bad attitude.
The Tigers should pick him up…it would let the younger players have more AAA time. No sense rushing the likes of Daz, who clearly isn’t ready.
Jacoby Jones had a good game the other day… a game winning homer, 4 rbi I think… very happy for him. But it seems like he’s had opportunity after opportunity to have that big hit and he keeps making outs. Guy on third, less than 2 outs and he strikes out… guy on second and no one out and he grounds out to third or pops up to shallow center. Do they really believe he’s going to be a major league outfielder or is he just filling a spot on the roster? If he’s just filling a spot, then it’s time to look at other choices for center. Span, Davis, Austin Jackson would all be better than what Jones has been. If they think he has a future, then send him back down so he can build confidence and learn because he’s no better today than he was two years ago.
JaCoby Jones is not that great of a CF either. He seems to be generally late on fly balls and still misplays the bounce off walls. If he can’t hit, he needs to be an Adam Engel, Kevin Kiermaier or better, Harrison Bader or Byron Buxton type CF.
Nobody uses high speed guys right. Couple of speedy guys who can be inserted at any time can change a ballgame.
Tough to do in a world with a 4 man bench, one of whom is the back up catcher. Particularly in the NL where you know you’ll likely need at least one pinch hitter each game.
I rather have DFA Alther than Rajai Davis. Davis would’ve helped more with the bat
He’s been great so let’s DFA him, we can’t be having that.
Rajai once made every cub fan in the country pee themselves at the same time back in 2016 with one swing of the bat.
Probably his biggest claim to fame
He needed that dinger to erase the defensive flubs earlier in the game.
That was Tyler Naquin with the shoddy defense.
This guy is the epitome of never give up. 12 teams in his career and a haul of 32mil in salary. Crazy
Welcome Back to Cleveland Where You Are a Legend
But Davis as a 1,000 OPS!
LOL.
Good. Free to go to Korea and still be bad…
Yeah Dee!!!
Toronto should sign him, send him to Buffalo to work with Anthony Alford.
Toronto needs all the help it can get. I still think MLB should get rid of 2 teams. The Marlins and Blue Jays.
So, as expected, he cleared waivers. I’d heard that he said he would go back to AAA so I guess he’s going to Syracuse.