Baltimore Orioles: Chris Davis Off To An Unbelievable Start To Spring

Baltimore Orioles first baseman Chris Davis is putting on quite the show through the first week of spring training games.

Yes, it’s Chris Davis. No, spring stats don’t mean much. But that doesn’t mean it hasn’t been fun watching Baltimore Orioles first baseman Chris Davis get off to a blazing hot start to spring training.

Since 2017, Chris Davis ranks dead last among all qualified major league hitters with a -4.5 fWAR, nearly two Wins Above Replacement worse than the next name on this list, Albert Pujols of the Los Angeles Angels.

He seriously considered walking away from the game after the 2019 season, but now Davis finds himself 25 pounds heavier and an early front runner for the 2020 Jake Fox Award for superb spring numbers that don’t mean very much.

Through three spring training games, Davis is 4 for 5 with two home runs, two RBI, and four runs scored. He has drawn three free passes at the plate and has yet to strikeout. Now, for any other hitter in baseball, we would look at these numbers and immediately move on, but when it’s Chris Davis putting up these numbers, we stop and over-analyze each at-bat.

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Both of his home runs have gone the opposite way and his walks are coming after falling behind in the count. After hitting .215, .168, and .179 in each of the past three seasons, his early spring success is certainly the biggest surprise of camp, even if we’re still in February.

We aren’t going to ask if Chris Davis is back and we won’t get our hopes up that his success continues into the regular season, but we are going to sit back and enjoy this run while it lasts.

Davis has three years left on his contract, but with positional prospects like Ryan Mountcastle, Yusniel Diaz, Ryan McKenna, and Rylan Bannon requiring roster spots in the near future, Davis’ roster spot will be needed. For now, expect to see Davis in the starting lineup as he attempts to prove one final time that he still has something in the tank.