The Cardinals have reached out to Chris Davis through his agent Scott Boras, according to FOX Sports reporter Jon Paul Morosi.
From his post:
The Cardinals, sources say, are intrigued by Davis’ ability to play first base, third base, right field and left field. He started games at all four of those positions during his tenure (2011-15) with the Baltimore Orioles.
That, and you know, he had 47 home runs. Or roughly 34% of the Cardinals total team home run output in 2015 (137).
Davis was an All-Star and top 3 MVP vote getter in 2013, smashing 53 HRs and collecting 138 RBIs before falling off a cliff in 2014 – a season that included a batting average under .200 (in 525 plate appearances) and a 25-game MLB suspension for testing positive for amphetamines (Adderall).
He bounced back in 2015 and posted a slash line of .262/.361/.562 with a oWAR of 5.2 to go along with 47 HRs and 117 RBIs.
And just in case you were wondering, Davis is 29 (30 in March).
Here’s what we’re working with:
1) Davis would provide some desperately needed power to the Cardinals who have languished in the bottom 1/3 of all MLB teams in HRs and SLG the past 2 seasons (25th in HR & 23rd in SLG for 2015).
2) The Cardinals do like versatile position players as of late, pursuing the Brandon Moss/Mark Reynolds types who can allow Mike Matheny to mix-and-match lineup cards. With that in mind, Davis is a career -6.6 dWAR player (-0.9 in 2015), so the word ‘versatile’ is a bit loaded.
3) Over his 8 year career, Davis has banked 26.9M. This is his first and probably last (with pieces like this spreading through baseball group-think) chance for a huge payday. Boras will be on the hunt for not only premium dollars, but premium dollars over many years.
4) According to Sportrac, the Cardinals have 101M of salaries OTB for 2016. They finished 2016 w/ about 132M in total compensation paid out. In 2017, they only have 64M committed (with team options for Holliday, Garcia and Walden). With the 1 billion dollar cash infusion from the new TV rights deal and continuing strong fan support, the Cardinals do have the ability to carry 2 new hefty contracts.
5) I repeat – the pursuit of Chris Davis doesn’t preclude the Cardinals from signing Jason Heyward. Expect the Cardinals to make every possible effort to retain Heyward.
At this point in the hot stove, everyone is talking to everyone. How far the Cardinals have progressed with Davis (Boras) is anyone’s guess – the report only mentioned that talks had taken place. So nothing (probably) is close to being done.
But the Cardinals are expected to be one of the big players in free agency this winter. And it looks like their already putting some logs on the fire.
Photo: Prospect Insider
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