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Healthy, confident J.D. Davis looking like a trade deadline steal for SF Giants

DENVER — Back in December, all J.D. Davis could swing was a broomstick. Eight months later, fully recovered from offseason surgery and elevated into a regular role since coming over from the Mets, he’s traded it in for a boom stick.

No player dealt at the deadline — not Juan Soto, Josh Bell, Joey Gallo nor even the player he and three others were traded for, Darin Ruf — has been more productive with his new team than Davis.

Let’s review the numbers, shall we?

First, there’s four: the number of home runs Davis slugged in his first 12 games with San Francisco, the same amount he had in his first 66 games this season with the Mets. How about 400, or the average distance of each of those blasts, two of which have been opposite-field shots? (OK, it’s actually 399 feet.)

Coupled with a .333 average, Davis has been more than twice as good as the league-average hitter since the deadline, measured by wRC+. The league average is 100; entering Friday, Davis was at 205, better than all but five players with at least 40 plate appearances since Aug. 2. (Soto was at 166 — in 28 more plate appearances — followed by Gallo at 162.)

“He definitely can hit the ball a long way, that’s for sure,” said third baseman Evan Longoria.

“He hits the ball very, very hard,” noted Joc Pederson, the Giants’ home run leader.

“Those aren’t surprising things to us,” manager Gabe Kapler said.

Davis had a track record — he hit .307 with 22 home runs in 2019, a 137 wRC+ — but regaining that form was no guarantee. His power and average dropped off in the pandemic-shortened 2020 season and kept dropping in 2021 as Davis lost playing time and tried to play through an injury that ultimately required offseason surgery.

Davis believes he played almost the entire 2021 season with a torn ligament in his left middle finger, an ailment that can explain his slow start this season, too. In October, Davis had surgery on the finger, a procedure that came with a 10-12 month timeline for full recovery, his doctor told him.

“Now, it’s August. October to August. Where’s the trade deadline? Aug. 2,” Davis said, spelling out the 10-month timeline.

Two months removed from surgery, Davis began swinging a broomstick — 15 reps at a time — around Christmas. He began swinging his game bat again around the start of February.

As Davis tells it, the injury robbed him of a healthy 2021. The surgery interrupted an offseason of work. And the recovery prevented him from playing the first half of this season at 100 percent.

He no longer feels compromised at the plate.

“He doesn’t get cheated,” Longoria said. “I feel like all the home runs we’ve seen him hit here are on his back leg, swinging as hard as he can and connecting perfectly.”

“Last year, I wasn’t able to do that,” Davis said. “When you have that assurance where you’re healthy and you’re comfortable and you’re in an environment where you’re getting a lot of reps, it’s easy to really turn the corner. … Now you’re seeing the results.”

Regular playing time has been just as important for Davis, who said the inconsistency of his opportunities in New York “sucked.”

In the Giants’ platoon-oriented system, Davis is still getting most of his at-bats against left-handers, even though he has about even splits for his career. But he appreciates Kapler’s communication and open-door policy.

Kapler has a white board in his office, which he uses to map out lineups and substitutions up to a week in advance.

“I can walk in there, say what’s up and just see,” Davis said. “If I’m not in the lineup, what’s the situation? Talk to me. I think that’s really cool by Kap. I think he has that awareness because he used to be a player. …

“It’s unbelievable. Even pregame conversations, (Kapler) will tell you you’re not starting today but there are two or three lefties. There’s a scenario where you could come in in the fifth inning, or it could be a late pinch-hit in the eighth or ninth. That helps me, not only giving me assurance on the bench, but that I know I need to be ready by the fifth inning.

“The Mets, they’re like, well, there’s two lefties, you’ll never know when you’re going to get in there. I was like, come on, man. You had to be drinking four cups of coffee to stay locked in and wired because you never know. And all of a sudden, you’re like, all right, I didn’t even get in. Now you’ve gotta re-do all over the next day. It was mentally exhausting.”

Another upside for the Sacramento-area native has been playing close to home. He’d maybe see his parents every two months in New York, he said. His folks have already made two trips to Oracle Park with plans to attend almost every weekend series. And yes, dad Jonathan — once a Dodgers fan — has been appropriately outfitted.

“He rocked a Giants hoodie the other day with a Giants cap,” Davis said. “So he’s fitting in just fine.”

So, too, is his son.

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Trade deadline movers, by wRC+ (min. 40 plate appearances)

  1. J.D. Davis, SF: 205
  2. Juan Soto, SD: 166
  3. Joey Gallo, LAD: 162
  4. Daniel Vogelbach, NYM: 141
  5. Luke Voit, WSH: 107

Notable

  • The Giants brought one of their top outfield prospects with them to Colorado, but the expectation is that he won’t be activated this series. Heliot Ramos, 22, made the trip on a taxi-squad basis, despite his struggles at the plate at Triple-A persisting and logging more than a week since he last played a game. “Just to get some exposure to our major-league staff,” Kapler said. “There’s always value in getting a player exposed to more eyeballs.”


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Healthy, confident J.D. Davis looking like a trade deadline steal for SF Giants

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