Baltimore Orioles: Chris Davis wants to give it one more shot

Baltimore Orioles: Chris Davis wants to give it one more shot

Davis fell back into the wilderness, despite the encouragement of Orioles fans who seemed to appreciate the guts it took for him to get up and try again every time he was returned to his knees. The climax came in early August when he couldn’t handle a routine scoop on a low throw to first, in the fifth inning of a blowout the Orioles would take from the New York Yankees.

When the sides changed, the next thing anyone knew was Crushed Davis in a shouting match with Orioles manager Brandon Hyde, who may have ignited it with an ordinary remark of frustration while forgetting in the moment that Davis’s continuing struggle married to his pride equaled a powder keg.

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The next day Davis was genuinely apologetic for the incident. It happened to be an Orioles off day, so he took sanctuary where he loves it most, with his wife and children. “That’s really the only way that I know kind of how to escape, is just to be a dad, and be a husband,” he said. “I enjoyed the time with them, but I look forward to coming back in there and getting back to work with these guys.”

When he did, the first item on Davis’s agenda was apologizing to the boss, who’d already indicated he wouldn’t hold it against the struggling first baseman. Some in the Baltimore sports press suggested that, regardless, the incident so amplified Davis’s continuing baseball downfall that negotiating a buyout of his lucrative contract (his 2019 salary occupied a quarter of the Oriole payroll) wasn’t exactly an idea either side might reject.

But here Chris Davis is, in spring training now, determined to prove he has something left despite an off-season during which he considered retirement seriously. “I know what I’m capable of,”  he told reporters, one of whom, MLB.com’s Joe Trezza, tweeted the remarks.

“I know what I expect of myself. I don’t want to continue to just struggle,” Davis continued. “That’s not fair to these guys. That’s not fair to our fans or anyone associated with Baltimore. But I still think there is something left in the tank.”

After trying every conceivable adjustment previously and still coming up in the basement, too far removed from his seasons in the penthouse, Davis still can’t walk until or unless they rip the uniform away from him. And he shouldn’t. The Orioles weren’t threatened, blackmailed, bribed, or otherwise compelled against their will to offer Davis that seven-year, $161 million contract which still has three seasons to go including 2020.

CBS Sports writer Mike Axisa observes that the Orioles, who stand to remain the Woe-rioles in 2020, can actually afford to let the 33-year-old Davis have that final chance. He won’t be anywhere near the next Oriole contender, whenever it arrives. But for now, Axisa notes, “He’s not blocking a young player at the moment, and the team can see whether something clicks and if he can contribute in any way.”

If nothing clicks, the Orioles will end up releasing Davis and eating whatever he’s still owed through the end of 2022. Axisa thinks it could happen as soon as this spring or perhaps by mid-season. He also thinks Davis would be an abject fool to retire and leave all that money on the table when the Orioles were foolish enough to want him to have it in the first place.

Earning your money when you’re one of baseball’s biggest boppers is easy. Earning it when you’ve spent a little over three seasons fading slowly away, lost for reasons why, knowing you’ve tried everything short of voodoo, determined to get it back, finding it escaping you time and again, takes its own kind of guts.

“Davis is a guy who has accomplished an awful lot in baseball after struggling in his early 20s,” said The Athletic‘s Ken Rosenthal on a Fox Sports broadcast after that slump-busting night in Fenway, “a guy who was doing extra work before games, but failing every night on the most public of stages, a guy who is deserving of sympathy, not scorn.”

It’s probably the major reason why Davis shunning retirement just yet wasn’t shown the door by the Orioles just yet, either. And it’ll be the reason why, when the day of reckoning arrives at last, whatever else is wrong with the Orioles’ administration you may not be able to accuse them of malice aforethought.