While there hasn’t been much White Sox news over the bast few days, the Rangers have signed Matt Davidson. White Sox fans may remember the slugger who was not offered a contract this offseason. The deal with the Rangers is a minor league deal, but it gives Davidson a unique opportunity. The Rangers have plans to use him in the infield and as a reliever.
Sox fans saw Davidson quite a bit last season, whether at third base, first base or as the designated hitter. However, for the most part, his most memorable outings where when he took the mound in relief. Davidson pitched three outings last season and threw three scoreless innings.
One of the most enjoyable moments was when Davidson struck out Yankees slugger Giancarlo Stanton with a nasty curveball. After his 3 pitching performances, he walks away with three innings pitched, one hit given up, one walk and two strikeouts.
Although his fastball only hit around 90-92, Davidson says he can get it faster if he had the option to work more on his pitching. His curveball, however, is his best pitch. Davidson can get a crazy amount of break on curveball tantalizing even the best hitters in the league.
On the offensive side of the ball, Davidson improved his general hitting numbers from 2017, however, he still didn’t fit onto the Sox roster. Last year he produced a slash line of .228/.319/.419 with 20 homers and 62 RBIs over 123 games.
Although his power numbers dipped a bit, Davidson can still provide a solid punch at the DH spot. Although he wasn’t able to do cut down his strikeout totals, finishing with 165 in both 2017 and 2018, he was able to get more walks. In 2017, he walked only 19 times while in 2018 he drew 52 walks, giving a nice bump to his on-base percentage.
The jury is still out on whether Matt Davidson will be able to be a two-way player consistently, however, he definitely has the potential to be, and it should be interesting to watch.
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