Elephant Rumblings: JD Davis Designated for Assignment

MLB news roundup

Good morning everyone! Happy Tuesday to the Athletics Nation.

Late last night we got word that the club was making a fairly notable roster move, designating 1B/3B J.D. Davis for assignment:

So ends Davis’ short tenure with the A’s. Davis joined the Athletics after an unceremonious end to his Giants tenure, brought on by the signing of former Athletic Matt Chapman. It wouldn’t take long for Davis to find a new home, and he wouldn’t have to move far as he just needed to cross the Bay Bridge to join his new team.

Brought on with the hope of handling third base on a daily basis, Davis got the nod on Opening Day and got off to a quick start with his new team, going 8-for-22 with two home runs over the first five games of the year. Then his bat started to cool down and then on top of that Davis suffered a right groin strain that sidelined him for a few weeks. What was an encouraging start to the season quickly devolved.

Davis worked his way back to the club but has been limited due to the emergence of Abraham Toro, who has handled a lot of third base duties recently. With first baseman Ryan Noda down at Vegas the hope was that moving Davis across the Diamond to first to platoon would help. In fairness, Davis hasn’t done awfully since his return and is actually hitting .357 over his past five games, albeit all singles. In fact he actually just went 2-for-3 in his final game with the club so it’s a bit of a curious time to cut bait with Davis.

The club brought Davis aboard to solidify a position (third base) that looked like a black hole entering the season. There weren’t many good options to take over the position to start the year but with Davis’ surprising availability the fit was clear and obvious. Sadly it didn’t work out but it shouldn’t take Davis long to find a new home. The former 3rd-round pick can play both infield corners as well as left field, flexibility that is valued in today’s game.

Taking Davis’ place on the roster will reportedly be young outfielder Lawrence Butler:

Butler began the year on the Major League roster but was eventually demoted to Triple-A after some struggles, much to the dismay of Athletics fans. Butler had a lot of underlying metrics that indicated he was getting a bit unlucky. Encouragingly, Butler has performed well while in the minors slashing .255/.349/.418 with four bombs in just 22 games. If Butler can bring that same energy back with him to the club then this move will be a net positive. Hopefully this is the final time we have to talk about Butler being promoted to the major league level and he’ll stick this time. We’re all rooting for Butler!

A’s Coverage:

• How To Make Sense of Excruciating Loss After Excruciating Loss
• My Dad and the A’s
• Athletics designate J.D. Davis for assignment
• Oakland

MLB News Coverage:

• First All-Star Ballot: close races and favorites emerging
• Dodgers’ Mookie Betts to miss 6-8 weeks with broken hand
• Yankees’ Anthony Rizzo breaks arm, to miss 4-6 weeks
• Willie Mays won’t attend Rickwood Field game
• Yankees’ Gerrit Cole set to make season debut Wednesday
• Rays manager Kevin Cash reportedly under contract through 2030
• Today in Baseball History

Best of X:

An encouraging update for the top prospect’s first rehab game:

Maybe we’ll be seeing him sometime this season with the big league club?

And rewarded with a promotion: