What Could Have Been: Chris Davis MLB Home Run Feature

Chris Davis certainly wasn’t the first power hitter that struggled to hit for high average and struck out with great regularity, but he was in a sense ahead of his time. The first six years of Davis’s career were spent trying to keep a regular roster spot with the Rangers while fighting off the mindset of the time.

When an opportunity opened with the Orioles, fans got six smashing years with the first baseman. But the question that will never be answered, what could have been for Davis if he came up today?

Scouts spotted Davis’s talents early, first drafted by the New York Yankees in the 50th round in 2004, by the Los Angeles Angels in the 35th round in 2005, and lastly by Texas in the fifth round in 2006.

Davis tore up minor league pitching, making a quick ascension to the show by 2008. Oddly, the rookie season at the plate would be one of his better ones by average hitting .285 through 295 at-bats. What was quickly evident, his power. Davis hit 17 dingers with 23 doubles and 2 triples.

The sophomore slump saw Davis drop his batting average to .238 with 21 homers in 113 games. In 2010 and ’11, the Rangers optioned Davis back and forth between the minors and the big leagues.

Traded on July 30, 2011, to the Orioles, Davis got a 31-game audition with his new club. The fresh start resulted in a .276 BA. At the age of 26, the breakout year finally came. Davis smacked 33 home runs in 139 games with 85 RBI hitting a respectable .270.

The career year came in 2013, leading the league in home runs (53) and RBI (138) while posting a career-best .286 average at the plate. The pop at the plate earned Davis his first and only All-Star selection.

If the Rangers felt foolish in 2013, the franchise had something to point to in 2014. Davis began the season in a slump that could not be shaken. An oblique strain in April derailed the early part of the season for the slugger. Things got worse; by September, Davis was suspended for the use of amphetamines which ended his season. Through 127 games, Davis hit .196 with 26 home runs and 72 RBI.

After failing the 2014 drug test, citing the use of Adderall, in 2015, Davis was cleared to use Vyvanse. What had hampered Davis was now in the past, giving way to another big year.

The batting average rose to .262 for the year and the helping of taters with it. Davis led the league with 47 long balls while driving in 117.

The other thing Davis led in was strikeouts. Davis flirted with the 200 milestone in 2013 ending with 199. In 2015, he cruised on past with 208. That dubious honor was earned again in 2016 with 219 Ks. The average dropped to .221 but the homers kept coming, smacking 38.

For his five years of productivity with the Orioles, Baltimore awarded Davis a seven-year $161 million deal in January of 2016.

The last big season at the plate came in 2017: .215 BA, 26 HR, 61 RBI, and 65 R.

Davis slumped through the first 2.5 months of the 2018 season before being benched. The year end statistics: .168 BA, 16 HR, and 49 RBI through 128 games, all at or near the bottom among qualifying batters.

The decline in production and plate time continued into 2019 ending with 12 home runs, 36 RBI, and 26 runs in 105 games with 139 strikeouts. The batting average stayed below the Mendoza Line at .179.

Sixteen games into the 2020 schedule, Davis was sidelined with a knee injury for the year. A back and hip injury, which led to surgery, kept Davis off the field in 2021. By mid-August of 2021, Davis announced his retirement.

There’s a long list of players preceding Davis that got a bad rap of sorts for being power hitters that struck out too much and hit for poor average, guys like Jack Clark and Rob Deer to name a couple.

For Clark, Deer, and Davis, the frustration has to be watching today’s game where bad averages and high strike out numbers are rewarded as long as the player hits 30 or more home runs. A great example, Seattle All-Star catcher Cal Raleigh has the game’s full attention with 53 home runs, but he’s also hitting .239 with 171 strikeouts.

An NL example, Kyle Schwarber. The Phillies LF/DH has a career .231 BA leading the league in Ks twice (2022 – 200, 2023 – 215).

In 2022, Schwarber crushed 46 HRs and then hit 47 the next season. Schwarber neared the 200-strikeout marker in 2024, stopping at 197, but played 150 games. The Phillies All-Star is having a career year in 2025 with 50 dingers, 123 RBIs, while hitting .242, and could get near that 200 marker with 173 Ks through 147 games.

Over the decades, being a slugger has been paired with piling up strikeouts. The great ones, like Aaron Judge, find a way to also hit for good average.

Davis won’t go down in MLB history as one of the greats, but there is the question; what could have been for Davis’s career if he came up with the Rangers in today’s game?

Although his playing days technically spanned 13 years, it seemed shorter. Still, he produced 295 home runs in 1,417 games. Easy to jump to the thought that he would have flirted with 400 career dingers, or more, if given the same opportunity today’s hitters get at the plate thanks largely to Sabermetrics.

*Beckett Online Price Guide – Chris Davis rookie cards

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