Chapman deal excites, surprises Giants' clubhouse
When J.D. Davis entered his latenight screening of the “Dune” sequel on Friday, he was the Giants' third baseman. Fresh off slugging his second home run of the spring a few hours earlier, the doubts that had subsumed his offseason had fully subsided.
Awakening his phone from “Do Not Disturb” mode as the credits rolled 2 hours and 45 minutes later, Davis realized that confidence had been misplaced.
“I activated it and went, `Shoot, I've got eight text messages,'” Davis recalled Saturday morning. “I'm like, `What happened? Oh, that happened.'”
The texts were not from Farhan Zaidi or any of his deputies in the Giants' front office.
Davis opened up social media, where he learned that Zaidi had brought in a new third baseman. The Giants' president of baseball operations waited out super agent Scott Boras and late Friday night secured a bargain-bin deal with four-time Gold Glover Matt Chapman.
The agreement, for a reported three years and $54 million with opt outs after each season, was still pending a physical Saturday morning. A few minutes before 9 a.m., Chapman walked into the Giants' facility, shortly after Davis finished addressing reporters at his locker.
“I assume somebody is going to come talk to me at some point,” Davis said. “I don't really want to put my foot in my mouth because I don't know what the game plan is accordingly as far as what Farhan wants to do or how he wants to go about it. But I felt like I proved myself this past year, having just 30 or 35 bad games and not really wanting to take the backseat. However, I want to win games. I want to do what's best for the team. I guess we'll just go from there.”
While perhaps nobody is more directly impacted by the move than Davis, the incumbent third baseman who now is a bit of a redundancy with Wilmer Flores already on the roster as a right-handed hitting reserve corner infielder, adding a player of Chapman's caliber carries larger implications.
All offseason, Zaidi preached of improving their defense, particularly on the infield, where their ground ball-oriented pitching staff stood to benefit most. The Giants ranked first in the majors in ground-ball rate last season but worst in errors. Since nabbing center fielder Jung Hoo Lee in December, Zaidi had yet to address their personnel on the dirt besides extending a non-roster invitation to veteran shortstop Nick Ahmed.
New starter Jordan Hicks, one of many sinkerballers on staff, was so excited to team up again with Chapman that he texted him as soon as he heard the news. They were teammates in Toronto last season and, now, represent two of the Giants' three biggest free-agent acquisitions.
“I said, `See you soon, congrats bro,'” Hicks said. “He said, `Thanks, I'm pumped.' “
The news hit closest to home, though, for Davis, who is experiencing a little déjà vu.
This, after all, isn't the first time he has teamed up with Chapman.
Nor is it the first time that Chapman causes him to lose out on playing time at third base.
“To be honest with you, we didn't split much time,” Davis chuckled, recalling their time together at Cal State Fullerton.
Sometime around the holidays, with rumors starting to heat up between Chapman and the Giants, Davis received a phone call from their new manager.
Bob Melvin had publicly gushed about Chapman, who played for him for six years in Oakland, but he wanted to reassure Davis.
“He had extended his neck to Farhan in saying we don't need a third baseman,” Davis recalled of their conversation, which he estimated lasted about five minutes. “He said his quotes saying `I love Chappy' and when people ask me if I want Chapman on the team, of course I do. I'd be lying if I said I don't want him. But at the same time I want to respect you and want you to know that I don't think we need anymore reinforcement at third base. I think you're our third baseman.'”
In retrospect, he said he had no reason to believe Melvin had been disingenuous.
“He did say, if there's an opportunity to get him at the end of spring training, then moves can be made,” Davis said. “There were no promises. He also said that.”