Douglas DeFelice-USA TODAY Sports
SACRAMENTO – If the chorus from Giants fans to Get This Guy Up Here has been a bit outsized, consider it a belated correction to the norm for Jaylin Davis.
After shoulder surgery during his junior season at Appalachian State, the buzz for a prospect considered a higher-round pick dissipated. The Twins took a 24th-round flier on him in 2015, but by the time he recovered and returned to the field, he was an unknown. Even after tasting success with real raw power, beginning to work his way through the Minnesota system, he was missing from all the top-prospect lists.
“I definitely did,” Davis told KNBR recently, asked if he felt he has flown under the radar. “But I try not to let that bother me. I just kept trying to play and keep doing what I was doing.
“It popped up sometimes, if I had the games where I was like player of the game or something like that. But that was about it.”
He’s had a lot of those games in the Giants organization.
When the newest Giants hope was 4 or 5, he composed a list of all the things he wanted to accomplish. There were some college baseball feats on the to-do list, which he then checked off as a Mountaineer. He was a freshman All-American and Southern Conference Freshman of the Year in 2013 and had a solid sophomore season before his junior year was wiped out, and he went pro.
“He’s been knocking them off,” Tiki Bigelow, his mother, said over the phone from North Carolina.
A glaring lingering one was the one Giants fans wanted him to realize, with each day and home run bringing him closer. He can now check that one off, too, after his call-up Wednesday.
Since the deadline trade that brought him from Minnesota in exchange for Sam Dyson, Davis has been daily theater, inspiring daily begs from the fans to get him here already. The numbers are outrageous: 27 games, 10 home runs, a 1.105 OPS.
Every hitter’s numbers are inflated in Triple-A and, specifically, the Pacific Coast League. Though, Davis tore up the International League, too, slashing .331/.405/.708 in 41 games with Rochester, Minnesota’s affiliate. The right fielder’s walks are up, but he still strikes out a ton – 138 times in 468 total at-bats this year.
He’s always brought power – with a 6-1, 190-pound frame and a Gary Sheffield-esque bat wag, he looks the part of the slugger – but not like this.
For Davis’ part, he doesn’t think he’s a product of the 2019 baseball. He credits the Twins’ first-year hitting coordinator, Peter Fatse – and not Rob Manfred – for the breakout.
“We sat down and looked at our video,” Davis said, remembering a spring meeting with Fatse. “He was just like, ‘Hey, you have so much more in your swing.’ I was like, ‘What do you mean.’ He was like, ‘You don’t use your lower half. We’re going to see how to use your lower half in spring training and see if we can get it to click.’”
So Davis’ spring mission was laid out. Working with Fatse and the team’s strength coach, he developed a stronger base and tweaked swing. This year, he’s not quite as straight up, slightly lower and using his legs more. While the bat still waves, he is more stationary.
“All of a sudden, it clicked,” said the right-handed bat, who said he can see the difference on video in his stance and swing this season. “I was definitely coming out of my legs – you can see my head bounce a little bit, which was causing my eyes to move, too. I would foul a lot of pitches off and I would miss my pitches early in the count. I think that’s the reason my walks have gone up a lot – I’m seeing the ball a lot better because my head’s not moving, too.”
He’s trying to keep his head straight out of the batters’ box, too.
“It definitely is,” Davis said, asked if it was difficult to ignore the rumbling that is near shouting from a fanbase who wants something new, especially something whose Triple-A legend is growing. “You try not to look at it. But it is definitely there.
“My family sees all that, sends it my way. My coaches from high school send it to me. … My mom and my aunt, they’re always on it.”
(His mother, in classic mom fashion, disputed that, saying she tries not to bother him. “Don’t want to break his concentration,” Bigelow said.)
Sept. 1 came and went, and Davis was still not wearing orange and black. There was no logical place to put him, as Davis is best suited for the corner-outfield spots, even if he’s played some center in Sacramento. He normally roams right field, where a right arm a college coach wanted to convert to pitching plays well, but Mike Yastrzemski (lefty) and Austin Slater (righty) have the position pretty solidly locked down. While the Giants eventually opened up a spot, the fact Davis was not on the 40-man roster was also a small obstacle. Alex Dickerson’s health makes it perhaps easier to break in at left, but outfield defense is where he may need to improve the most.
“Some of the outfield play, with the throwing, too, can be cleaned up a little bit,” Triple-A manager Dave Brundage said. “You notice the home runs, and I’m excited about it, but with reservations – I don’t want to put the guy in some spot, like, who’s he compare to?”
Davis won’t be the one to tell you he’s the next star. His manager described him as “a little more reserved.” Mom’s description was “quiet, kind of shy, laid-back.”
Not the type to yell for his own promotion. Not the type to call out opponents. Still, there’s one matchup Davis can’t wait for.
Davis does not seem to hold much ill-will toward the Twins, an organization that took a chance on an Appalachian State outfielder who had just torn his labrum in his right (throwing) shoulder. It took him some time to recover fully, not hitting Double-A until last season and Triple-A until this year. There really wasn’t a spot in the Minnesota outfield that looked for the taking.
Davis began to wonder if a trade would come. He began to wonder more after a conversation with longtime Cleveland reliever Cody Allen, who was with Rochester.
“He said, ‘You’re going. They’re going to use you as a trade piece,’” Davis said. “And that’s what ended up happening.”
Davis believed himself to be safe, the deadline having come and gone. He was on the field for batting practice on July 31. He watched the trainer talk with his manager. He watched his manager look at him. He watched his manager approach him. He was told, and the team celebrated his shot, even if he wasn’t sure what to think.
“I was doing good. I felt like I was stuck. But at the same time, I’d been around those guys my whole career,” the 25-year-old said. “It was hard to leave those guys. … I think that was the hardest part for me, not being able to see those guys anymore. But I’m pretty sure I’ll see them later on.”
Davis, like you, thinks he’ll get a chance. And as of much as he preaches one-day-at-a-time, he’s let his eyes wonder. The Giants are expected to play — for the first time — at Target Field on May 4-6 next season.
He knows.
“I looked at the dates,” he said with a smile.
