If one could work his way into becoming a good major league hitter, Henry Davis would be Henry Aaron by now.
Nobody doubts the diligence. Davis is committed. He’s on the job 25 hours a day, 366 days a year. He shocked the world by willing himself into becoming a good major league catcher after the Pirates tried to make him an outfielder when he broke in.
But again, if hard work made good hitters, there would be far more of them. Davis simply cannot find his way at the plate. We heard all through spring training and into April how his new, simplified approach would serve him.
We were told it would be different, and I suppose it is: It’s worse. Davis is hitting .151 through a quarter of the season and just .177 with a meager .289 slugging percentage over his 218-game career.
Batting average isn’t everything, but .177 stands out. A man named Bill Bergen, who played with the Reds and Dodgers in the early 1900s, had the lowest career batting average of all-time at .170 (among players with at least 1,000 at-bats).
I could take a random pitcher from Pirates history — not even a good-hitting pitcher like Don Robinson or Rick Rhoden — and threaten .177. John Candelaria batted .174 over nearly 600 at-bats. Gerrit Cole hit .163 in 251 at-bats.
Related
• Rockies rip Mitch Keller for 6 runs in 5th inning to roll past Pirates to even series
• Reliever Brandon Bidois makes MLB debut as 1st Australian to play for Pirates
• Cup of Joe (Starkey): Pirates ace Paul Skenes probably won’t win NL MVP — but he could own postseason
Davis is hitting .151. This is not viable long-term. Few in baseball history have survived this kind of offensive ineptitude to carve out a lengthy career. Certainly not as a starter.
Everybody’s rooting for Davis, who was drafted first overall in 2021 because of his bat. He is Paul Skenes’ preferred catcher. But he hasn’t had a batting average over .200 in any month since June of last year (.220).
Some power would help mitigate the situation, but Davis doesn’t hit for power, either. He has two homers, both in the same game May 1 against the Reds. Since that night, he is 1 for 18.
Only five players with 85 or more at-bats this season (Davis has 88), have a batting average lower than .151. The lowest of all is Ke’Bryan Hayes at .136 (GM Ben Cherington deserves a statue for dumping Hayes and his salary on the Reds).
Davis has become the catching version of Hayes in that his defense is keeping him in the majors. But his hold on the starting job seems tenuous at best. Pirates manager Don Kelly gave Joey Bart a recent run of five starts in six games. Bart responded by batting .412, including a 4-for-5 game at San Francisco last Saturday, before he landed on the injured list with a foot infection.
There hasn’t been much power, but Bart’s average rose 101 points in two weeks (it had nowhere to go but up). He’s now at .259 with a .670 OPS.
Part of me wondered if the Pirates gave Bart a run hoping he’d get hot so they could trade him. But here’s the thing: Neither of the team’s Triple-A catchers — Rafael Flores Jr. (main piece from the David Bednar trade) or Endy Rodriguez — has made much of a push. Rodriguez was recalled the other day to take Bart’s place.
Here’s the bigger thing: The Davis situation is becoming an emergency. With Bart out, this feels like his big chance to reclaim the starting job.
How many more chances can the Pirates afford to give him?