Reese Kaplan -- A Tale of 2 Players & 2 Managers

If you polled any Mets fans during this incredible run and asked what was the most important acquisition made in the off-season, it wasn’t the high profile trade to Seattle or the several free agent signings that signaled the Mets were serious about winning.  No, it was the unheralded signing of a suspect good-hit/no-field player from the Astros organization by the name of J.D. Davis who cost the club catcher Scott Manea, outfielder Ross Adolph and infielder Luis Santana.  The Mets also received an infielder named Cody Bohanek.  None of the prospects that went to Houston have done much this year but Davis has been a lynchpin in the club’s rise to success.

At the time the best some folks could say was, “Well, I guess he’s a cheaper version of Wilmer Flores” who was allowed to depart as a free agent to the Arizona Diamondbacks to the tune of $3.75 million this year and either $6 million next year or a $500K buyout.  J.D. Davis makes minimum and has several years of team control, so it made sense if Davis could indeed translate his AAA batting title success to the big league level. 

Right now in 306 ABs, about half a season’s worth of play, Davis is hitting .310 with 15 home runs and 44 RBIs.  It’s funny that when given the chance to play no one is complaining about his defense anymore, huh?

The man he replaced isn't exactly bottom feeding either.  He's hitting .307 with 6 home runs and 22 RBIs in just 189 ABs.  He was vexed by the veteran bias of his manager and the never ending criticism of his defense.  In one game on Memorial Day in 2017 Flores got three hits, raising his season’s average to .317 and his hot streak performance to .389, so naturally Terry Collins benched him to get playing time for the .202 hitting Jose Reyes. 

This should come as no surprise to anyone who watched the white-haired skipper over his career.  The game immediately after Flores tied Edgar Alfonzo’s 6-hit performance for a club record (including two home runs), the great demotivator benched him in favor of Jose Reyes.  To his credit, Reyes went 1-5 and Flores, a late game sub went 1-2 with 3 RBIs showing he was once again the better choice.

So the hypothetical I posed to a group of fellow Mets fans just recently was how deeply on the Mets bench would J.D. Davis be buried if Terry Collins still held the lineup pencil.  Granted, J.D. Davis was not Mickey Callaway’s first choice, either, but with injuries to Yoenis Cespedes, Jed Lowrie, Brandon Nimmo and at various times to Robinson Cano, Jeff McNeil, Dom Smith and others, Davis was given playing time.  The big difference is not that Davis delivered, it’s that Callaway rode the hot hand instead of benching him after delivering. 

Given the hot spell that has people talking about October baseball not wistfully as a thing of the past, but as a distinct possibility, it’s nice to see a guy like Davis getting the opportunity to show what he can do.  What will be interesting to see is as the cavalry arrives what will the new manager do with playing time.