Chris Davis’ Orioles honor a reminder his tenure wasn’t all about his "bad" contract

The Baltimore Orioles announced this week that Chris Davis had been elected into the Orioles Hall of Fame. Davis will be honored alongside two other inductees, Storm Davis and Jim Russo, on August 1st later this summer. Because of how Davis' tenure with the Orioles ended, he became an easy target and punching bag for the haters. His contract was the subject of much ridicule online, and he often heard boos in his final years with the team.

That kind of experience could have embittered Davis, but although he keeps a low profile in general, he's continued to be supportive of the Orioles and even apologetic to the fans who held him in such disdain. For the fans' part, the angry feelings appear to have mostly subsided as the memory of things like Davis' infamous hitless streak fades away, while the memories left by his prodigious power seasons remain.

Orioles fans should be excited for a chance to honor Chris Davis

Last summer, Davis returned to Camden Yards with several of his Orioles teammates for Adam Jones' Orioles Hall of Fame induction. Nobody but Davis knows what he was thinking, but it's not hard to imagine him being nervous about getting booed when the PA announced his name. Instead, he received a loud ovation from the home crowd as if he were back in the middle of the lineup on pace for 50 homers.

That was just a moment; this year's induction ceremony will be a full-blown Chris Davis celebration, and there's a lot to celebrate. Here are some of his notable accomplishments as an Oriole:

In 2013, Davis set the Orioles franchise record for home runs in a single season with 53 and extra-base hits in a season with 96. His 1.004 OPS that season is the highest single-season OPS by an Oriole this century. His 138 RBI that season is the second-highest total by an Oriole this century. In 2015, Davis hit 47 home runs, which was good for 4th best in a single season in Orioles history. His .923 OPS is the 3rd highest single-season OPS this century.

Those two seasons were when Davis provided most of his value to the Orioles, but they weren't his only good seasons. He had two other seasons with 30+ homers and two others in the high 20s. All in all, he hit 253 home runs as an Oriole, good for 6th all-time in the Orioles franchise history.

Davis played a key role during one of the best stretches of Orioles baseball since the early 1980s. His towering homers provided some of the most memorable moments of Orioles baseball this century. He deserves to be honored in the Orioles Hall of Fame, and his tenure deserves to be remembered fondly.  

A quick note about his contract

It is true that Davis wasn't worth the money the Orioles gave him, but it wasn't a "bad contract". In a sport without a salary cap, a contract is only "bad" if it prevents you from being able to contend. The Orioles' fate would have been the same whether or not they had given Davis that contract. They had drafted poorly for years, they had no international scouting presence, and the farm system was dried up.

There is nobody the Orioles could have signed in 2018 with the $17 million they owed Davis that would have stopped them from being the worst team in the league. Once the Orioles shed all their salary and went in the tank, it didn't really matter how much they were paying Davis.

The real mistake was restructuring his deal so that the Orioles are paying him through 2037. They should have just eaten the deal while they were running a skeleton crew payroll and been done with it. Chalk that up to John Angelos being greedy and trying to squeeze as much profit out of the tanking Orioles so he could buy more poorly fitting polo shirts.