BASEBALL: A’s slugger Khris Davis says he can return to his batting consistency after last season’s slump.
Davis says he’s ready to return to his slugging ways after last season’s slump
OAKLAND >> Any lineup the Oakland A’s throw out in this shortened 2020 season rivals the best in baseball. Add Sean Murphy’s powerful swing to an offense that ranked among the league’s top 10 in most major statistical categories in 2019 and those lineups get scarier.
Add Khris Davis swinging to his 2018-level production? Manager Bob Melvin shook his head, eyes widened at the thought.
“Add a normal KD season to this offensive group, we have the chance to be really good,” he said.
Davis wasn’t comfortable last year discussing his uncharacteristically slow production at the plate, but bits and pieces came to the forefront. A hip contusion suffered last May when running into a railing at PNC Park in
Pittsburgh and a subsequent hand injury, spiraled into unshakable discomfort, then mental games and doubt.
With the benefit of time, the club’s designated hitter can put his subpar season — 23 home runs, a .220 batting average, a .679 OPS — in a concise perspective.
“That’s one thing I took last year, I didn’t feel good physically a lot of the days,” he said Friday. “And that’s what held me down, I couldn’t overcome it.”
Davis, 32, says he feels good. Coaches notice he’s finding his rhythm, too. His 2019 season brings up an interesting dilemma in this 2020 experiment. How do you play the hot hand and manage the cold slump?
In a 162-game season, coaches have the space to let even the most prolonged cold streak thaw. In a 60-game season, the margin for error is too thin to accommodate a middle-order hitter putting together solid at-bats without the results. You can’t microwavezap players out of slumps.
“Depends on if it’s a good or bad streak,” Melvin said. “It’s going to be different than anything I’ve had to manage. We’ll have a lot of conversations with coaching staff, amongst front office, about when to potentially pull the plug on someone you would give 200 at-bats to before you make an adjustment. I can’t answer that for sure.”
Numbers and progressions that coaches might see indexed in their files won’t necessarily apply. Coaches might need to depend on their intuition and eye to make shrewd lineup and matchup moves.
Davis, the major league leader in homers in 2018 with 48, had earned the right to get himself out of his prolonged slump last season. At times he put together promising at-bats and made hard contact that indicated he might be pulling himself out of it. The eye test, in 2020, will be key.
“You’re watching quality at-bats as well,” assistant hitting coach Eric
Martins said. “You can’t panic, if you panic, the players panic and they can feel the pressure. It’s about watching how their at-bats are going.”
Most simulated games and live batting-practice sessions happen outside the media’s eye in this new-world training camp, but there are indications that Davis could thrive — even with the lack of time and space to battle out of slumps, or maybe because of it.
For one, the pressure is off.
“This team is good enough to where I don’t have to do all the work, they proved it last year,” Davis said. “They don’t need me to go out there and hit a home run every night to win a ballgame.”
Davis has had mostly good at-bats thus far, he said. One bad day. He’s dealing with the same quagmire all hitters are sorting through: feeling the pressure to collect all the reps and swings needed before the season starts without getting a heavy bat.
“In their minds they’re behind and need to catch up,” Melvin said. “But that can do some harm if you have too many (swings).”
Davis said he might need 50 at-bats to truly be in rhythm, but Martins said that may be impossible to fit into the next two weeks that remain in camp.
And that might be the case for all hitters who have an at-bat goal in mind squashed by our new reality. Hitters are already behind pitchers, but Martins is sure that hitters won’t truly hit their stride until the season is underway. Games early may come down to pitching and defense.
Plus, A’s hitters are a tad behind other teams due to the testing delay.
“We’re playing catch up unfortunately,” Martins said. Though, he’s seen indications, especially from Davis, that the catch-up gap isn’t too wide.
Davis’ garage/home gym was a safe haven for a group of players who stayed in Arizona during lockdown. Ramón Laureano and Mark Canha, in particular, stopped by on the regular to hang out and “get our swole on,” Davis said.
With Martins, the trio (and Matt Chapman, on occasion) hit the cages together, where Davis incorporated some new elements to his routine that might expedite his transition back into a groove. Laureano and Canha hooked him to more velocity hitting off the pitching machine.
“It worked for Ramón, so why not try it?” Martins said.
It’s hard not to get starry-eyed envisioning an A’s lineup jumping off the page with Davis at his peak, driving balls over the fences with regularity.
Even before the lockdown — before Davis had the time to physically and mentally recuperate — Davis could feel a comeback looming. No more clear than when a reporter asked him who would have a breakout 2020.
“Me,” Davis said after a long pause. “I think I’m going to break out and be back to what everybody wants . ... Going to hit .247 again.”
A joke about his statistical anomaly aside — Davis hit .247 four seasons in a row — that level of self-confidence might be the best sign of all.