Chris Davis dropped a pretty good quote which may not sit easy with some Baltimore Orioles fans. Fact is, why should Chris Davis care what you think?
There is no secret, Chris Davis has stunk since he signed his 7 YR/$161M contract with the Baltimore Orioles back in 2016. Every year has been worse than the previous for him. The past three seasons he has hit well less than .200 and while his power numbers slip, his strikeouts continue to accumulate.
Chris Davis is standing in the way of the Orioles rebuild. They owe him too much money to just move away from him and they are handcuffed in what they can do because of his salary. None of this is Davis’ fault, and he should not be offering apologies.
This Chris Davis quote will stick with angry O's fans: "I’m the one big lump that (Os) are kind of stuck with, but they knew what they were signing up for when they took the job."
— Dan Connolly (@danconnolly2016) December 9, 2020
Truth: they didn't know they'd get 0 production, but, yes, they knew the risks. That's free agency.
As is the case with any free agent signing, buyer beware. Would you look $161M in the face and walk away from it? Would you offer to give money back if you felt like you weren’t living up to the agreed upon sum you were getting?
Granted, when the Orioles offered Davis all this money, he was coming off a season where he led all of baseball with 47 home runs. He had a batting average of .262 and he drove in 117 runs for the Orioles.
This was just two years removed from leading all of baseball in home runs (53) and runs batted in (138) while hitting .286.
Sure, his numbers had slipped a little when he signed his massive deal. And he was coming off a season where he also led the league in strikeouts, but who thought he’d completely forget how to hit the ball?
The Orioles did know what they were getting into, both when they got into this business, and when they offered Davis the contract they did.
There is no reason for Davis to hide his feelings on the subject. This elephant is not in the room. This elephant has been running up and down the Beltway for three years now. Davis knows what the organization thinks of him, as per their actions of benching him, and while it may affect him as a person, it shouldn’t affect him as a professional. He should cash those checks with a smile on his face.