Henry Davis is back in the big leagues.
First reported by Jason Mackey and then followed up Alex Stumpf, the Pirates are recalling Henry Davis from the Triple-A Indianapolis Indians.
The first overall pick by the Pirates in 2021, Davis made his Pirates debut last season when he was called up in June. His arrival was celebrated by fans, who were eager to see a power bat enter the lineup at around the same time the team had also recalled catcher Endy Rodriguez, another much hyped prospect.
Davis had his moments, but in general he struggled in his first year in the major leagues. In 62 games with Pittsburgh, Davis slashed .213/302/.351 with 7 home runs and 24 RBI.
Davis was primarily used as a right fielder last season, despite his natural position being catcher. He caught just two innings (both at the tail end of blowout losses) while Rodriguez, Jason Delay, and the eventually traded-Austin Hedges split the catcher responsibilities.
Coming into spring training in 2024, Davis grabbed hold of a catcher role on the team and made the big league squad out of camp. But despite his definite improvement behind the plate, he suffered tremendously while standing next to it.
In 23 games to open the season, Davis was slashing just .162/.280/.206, with no homers and just 4 RBI.
The frustration Davis was feeling was often visible both on his face and in his swing, which was often very aggressive and whiffed far too often. His strikeout rate jumped from 27.1% in 2023 to 34.9% in 2024.
His immense struggles only added further questions to a catching situation that had been in flux for a while.
Before the season even began, the Pirates learned that they had lost Endy Rodriguez for the entire year, after undergoing UCL surgery for an injury suffered playing ball in the Dominican Winter League.
Then, free agent signee Yasmani Grandal suffered plantar fasciitis, which landed him on the Injured List to open the year.
That left Davis and Jason Delay as the catching duo for the club, but that barely lasted. Delay went down with a longer-term injury after just his first game of the season.
That forced the team to trade for Joey Bart from San Francisco (who is also currently injured), but when Grandal was ready to come up from his rehab assignment, the Pirates made the call and optioned Davis down to Triple-A.
The early showings weren’t all that encouraging, but after shaking off some of the early struggles, he rebounded very nicely with the Indians, hitting .290 with an OPS of 1.078, which stood as the highest on the team at the time of his departure.
He slammed 7 home runs and racked up 17 RBI in just 23 games with Indianapolis, and the team had praised the adjustments he made in recent weeks.
He seemed to re-adopt his old batting stance, which paid great dividends as he worked back to the major leagues. I’m sure that won’t spark any conversations about the team’s major league hitting coach…
Davis recorded at least 1 hit in 17 of his 23 games, and had 5 multi-hit games en route to 52 total bases he collected.
Obviously, a major bump in his numbers was expected (and quite frankly, required) for Davis to earn another crack at the major leagues, but now that he is getting that chance, can this go around be different?
Combining his 2022 and 2023 totals, Davis is a career .201 hitter at the major league level. Obviously, there is much more power and ability in his bat than he has been able to show as a Pirate so far.
I do think Davis experienced a good confidence boost while he was with Indianapolis. It can’t be understated how broken he looked towards the end of his major league run earlier this season. He was looking for one magic swing that could fix everything, and it never came.
It almost looked as if he was desperate to avoid any kind of option back to Triple-A, doing anything he could to try and avoid it.
But then it happened, and now that it did, he has had time to reset, readjust, and find a groove. With that in mind, I do expect him to bring a spark in his first few games back.
When he was first called up last year, Davis was batting .351 in his first 10 games with the Pirates. He had an OPS of .901 as he racked up 13 hits, a home run, and 6 RBI. His batting average on balls in play was an astounding .462.
That run came after gaining confidence and working his way through the minor leagues in both Altoona and Indianapolis. The boost it gives a player to progress through a farm system that quickly surely gave Davis some adrenaline during his debut games with Pittsburgh last year.
But even putting that aside, he looked pretty confident and comfortable at the plate for Indianapolis while he was there. I mentioned him looking similar to his old stance, which I do think played a factor in his rebound. It should be fascinating to see how the stance element translates back to major league pitching.
The timing of this move is also very interesting. Last week, when Joey Bart was placed on the 10-Day Injured List with a thumb injury, the Pirates opted to call up Grant Koch instead.
Koch was a draft pick by the Pirates in 2018, and had spent a long time slowly working through the minor leagues before he could finally say he was a major leaguer.
While the story was fun, Koch was hardly an impact player for the Pirates. A defensively minded catcher at heart, he was batting only .167 in Triple-A for Indy at the time of his recall.
As one would have expected, he didn’t suddenly find a new gear in the major leagues. He struck out 6 times in 7 at bats, and his only time getting on base was via a walk.
The calling up of Koch was a pretty clear sign of where the organization stood on Davis however, or so we thought. Either the Pirates had wanted more improvement from Davis still, or they just needed that success to last for longer before they felt comfortable bringing him back.
Now, just a week later, the Pirates have reversed course, and decided that Davis was ready for another opportunity.
Sure, by waiting a week it allowed Davis to get into a handful of more games (and put together a pretty good stat line in that time), but it is still a little peculiar nonetheless.
Longevity is ultimately the key for Davis and the Pirates. A spark when he returns is always going to be appreciated, but it’s about finding a way to be consistent in the majors like he can be in the minors.
(Featured photo by Justin K. Aller/Getty Images)
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