Baltimore Orioles Chris Davis finishes historically bad season

It’s over. It’s all finally over for Baltimore Orioles first baseman Chris Davis, as one of the worst seasons in baseball history has come to an end.

One could certainly understand if the Baltimore Orioles are happy to see the 2018 season come to an end. This year has been an utter disaster, one where the franchise set a record for losses in a year. Even the 1939 St. Louis Browns, who lost 111 games, and the 1988 Orioles, who lost their first 21 games of the year, were no match for the ineptitude of 2018.

If there was one player who personified the Orioles struggles this year, it was first baseman Chris Davis. His struggles reached the point where a local bar was offering free shots if Davis got a hit. Considering the way his season went, that bar likely did not lose any money on this promotion.

Now that the season has come to an end, the damage can finally be tabulated. Davis ends the year with a -2.8bWAR, tied for the 13th worst season in baseball history. He trails only Adam Dunn and his miserable -2.9 bWAR in 2011 for the worst campaign of the 21st century.

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There are only so many ways that one can explain Davis’ season. Given the Orioles own struggles, and his contract, they had no choice but to put Davis in the lineup in hopes that he would snap out of his season long slump. Instead, he produced a horrendous .168/.243/.296 batting line, hitting only 16 homers and 12 doubles in 522 plate appearances. Davis struck out 192 times, nearly 2.5 times more frequently than he had a hit in 2018.

Davis also did not do anything to lead anyone to think that his 2019 campaign will be any better. Instead, he ended the year on a 0-21 streak, striking out 12 times in that span. Just more of the same when it came to his 2018 campaign. Extending that performance out, Davis had just a .132/.179/.151 batting line in 53 plate appearances in September.

Unless the Orioles just want to consider his contract dead money, Davis will still be there next season. He is due another $92 million over the next four seasons, his contract one of the most untradeable deals in baseball at this point. The Orioles would need to eat a large portion of that deal, and likely include a top prospect, even if they wanted to move on from Davis.

The Baltimore Orioles dreadful 2018 campaign was personified by Chris Davis. Fortunately for both, the season is over.