There was some excitement brewing when it was announced that the Pirates were recalling Henry Davis.
The 24-year old was optioned to Triple-A Indianapolis in early May after starting the season on an abysmal cold streak. The season-opening injury and subsequent rehab assignment of free agent catcher Yasmani Grandal had perhaps bought Davis some extra time, but once Grandal was healthy and ready to come up to Pittsburgh, Davis had to go.
At the time he was re-assigned to Triple-A, Davis was slashing .162/281/.206 with no home runs and 4 RBI. He struck out 29 times in 68 at bats.
Once down in Indianapolis, Davis began to rebound. In 23 games with Indianapolis, Davis batted .296/.436/.642 with 7 home runs and 17 RBI. He struck out fewer times (25) in more at bats (81) with the Indians while playing Triple-A ball.
I did a much deeper dive into Davis’ time in Indy and his work in Triple-A, which you can find in full here, but here’s a snippet of what I said on his impending return.
“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, re-adjust, and find a groove. With that in mind, I do expect him to bring a spark in his first few games back.”
So I was obviously wrong. I believed that Davis’ mid-season return to the major leagues would replicate what happened last season when he was originally called up.
Instead, even though it’s a very small sample size, the opposite has occurred. In 12 at bats for Davis since his return, he has struck out 8 times and usually in harsh fashion.
He smacked a double against the Los Angeles Dodgers in his first game back, but that remains to be his only highlight since his recall.
Davis has struck out thrice in half of his games since the recall, and has looked very much like his old self from the start of the year, which is a concerning pattern.
Now of course, as you have probably thought to yourself as you’ve read this: it’s very very early.
And that’s true; four games is not enough of a sample size to determine what Davis is going to be able to do back in the big leagues.
However, it is an indication that perhaps the Pirates made a miscalculation when they recalled Davis after about a month in the minor leagues.
Remember, when Joey Bart went down with injury, the Pirates chose not to recall Davis, and instead selected the contract of Grant Koch to fill in behind Grandal.
Koch has always been a defensively minded catcher, and while a good mind is valuable behind the plate, his batting stats weren’t scaring anybody. Koch was slashing .167/.211/.259 with 1 home run and 5 RBI in 17 games for Triple-A Indianapolis.
It was a pretty good indication that the Pirates believed Davis needed more time in the minors. In my mind, they were right. While at the time of Koch’s call-up Davis was batting well, it was not a large runway to see him consistently succeed against Triple-A pitching.
Pittsburgh would have rather had Koch and his awful batting numbers because, based on their actions, Davis wasn’t ready yet.
So it was a little interesting to see Davis play only 5 more games with Indy before being recalled. What made the difference in those extra handful of games?
Koch received 7 at bats with the Pirates; he struck out 6 times. That certainly wasn’t ideal for the Pirates, even if Grandal was taking over as a much more full-time starter.
But Davis, a former first overall pick, is now suffering a similar fate. It’s staggering to say that Davis has only been the most marginal of an upgrade over Koch.
It’s gotten bad enough that Davis was pinch hit for in the bottom of the eighth with Grandal instead. I know that matchups could have played a role in that, but the optics of pinch hitting your former first overall pick for a catcher that was batting .169 heading into the day is…not good.
Grandal’s OPS, which is .476, is actually currently better than Davis’ .471.
Pittsburgh doesn’t really have any other options at catcher (besides returning to Koch), so the odds that Davis is in danger of heading back to Indy soon is unlikely. It does still beg the question of how ready Davis truly was when he was recalled.
Triple-A pitching is still immensely talented, but translating minor league success to major league ball has been the biggest struggle for Davis in his young career, and we’re seeing it again now that he’s back.
(Featured photo by Joe Sargent/Getty Images)
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