J.D. Davis, New York Mets
From a season-long perspective, J.D. Davis benefitted purely from getting a chance to play. He suited up for 140 games and 453 plate appearances with the Mets in 2019, which was a huge contrast to his two cups of coffee with the Houston Astros from 2017-18 (67 games and 181 plate appearances).
He was already looking like a wise offseason pickup heading into the All-Star break, but like many Mets players did this past year, Davis kicked it up a notch in the second half. His wRC+ jumped from 114 to 156 during this period of time, and while his success at Citi Field stands out (185 wRC+ at home 86 on the road), he made some positive changes in his batted-ball profile.
Davis did have a propensity for hitting lots of ground balls in his limited time with Houston. The first half with New York wasn’t much different. Following the midsummer classic, though, that number went from 51.6% to 42.4%. This difference (and then some) went to his fly-ball rate, which increased nearly 12 percentage points. Combining that with a slight rise in hard-hit rate led to his slugging percentage jumping from .468 in the first half to .584 in the second half.
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