As professional baseball players climb through the Minor League Ranks, characteristics and qualities, many times, will define a players path to the Major Leagues. Baseball presents so much failure that, most times, talent isn’t enough. Talent has gotten many young players “to” the Minor Leagues, but it’s their characteristics and qualities that, many times, determines whether they get “through” the Minor Leagues.
Players have to have Guts and not be afraid to fail. They also have to have resilience, and get back up and keep trying in the face of failure. Players also need to be intelligent in the way that they handle the grind that baseball presents both mentally and physically. And, then, players need to be tough and can’t let nagging injuries or prolonged 0fers detour their path.
If you didn’t catch on, those qualities all spelled out the word GRIT. Baseball players have to have GRIT! They have to have Guts, Resilience, Intelligence and Toughness. If a baseball player doesn’t have Guts, isn’t Resilient, doesn’t play with Intelligence and isn’t Tough, then, in the words of one of my greatest mentors, Good Luck!
Road to Success
Matt Davidson has all those qualities and, in 2009, was given the chance to put them on display. Davidson was drafted in the first round of the 2009 Draft by the Arizona Diamondbacks and began climbing his mountain to the Major Leagues.
The early climb brought a lot of success, as just 2 years after being drafted, in 2011, Davidson was ranked in the top 100 of all Minor League prospects. By 2013 Davidson was at the top of the Minor League Baseball mountain and found himself in AAA Reno, just one step away from the MLB. In that year the burly right handed Slugger played in and was named the MVP of the All Star Futures game, then, also won the Minor League Homerun Derby the very next day. A month later he was in the Major Leagues.
Davidson had made it. He had climbed over the Minor League Mountain and was headed to the Peak of Baseball, the Major Leagues. In 2013 he appeared in 31 games for the Diamondbacks hitting .237 with 3 homeruns.
Business Side of Baseball
The Winter of 2013 is when Davidson was introduced to the business side of baseball. The Up and Comer was up and traded to the Chicago White Sox for closer Addison Reed who had closed 40 games that year. Reed was just 25 years old, so the White Sox saw an enormous amount of value in Davidson in trading Reed for him. But, as baseball would have it, Davidson broke camp in 2014 with AAA Charlotte, hit just .199 and spent his next 2 seasons in AAA.
Adjustments
At some point in their careers, all professional baseball players are forced with making some adjustments if they want to keep playing. Whether it is making physical changes to mechanics or just simply creating different off the field routines, the players that are willing to take on those adjustments are the ones that tend to last the longest. Davidson came to that crossroads in 2014. Between the years of 2014 and 2015 he got married, had kids, lost his grandparents and was not performing very well on a seemingly never ending assignment in the Minor Leagues. As a result, he almost walked away from the game and went to work with his dad as an electrician. But, in a show of resilience, instead of quitting, he decided to adjust.
Resilience
Despite having only 3 MLB at bats in 3 years, Davidson refocused himself to getting back to the Major Leagues and sought the help of Mike Gellinger. Gellinger was the White Sox MInor League hitting instructor at the time and had worked with Paul Konerko and Konerko was the player that Davidson was compared to the most. Konerko fully endorses and is a big believer in Gellinger, so Davidson was “All in” and was ready to find some answers and get back to the MLB. And, in 2017, that’s exactly what the former first round draft pick did. Between 2017 and 2018, the Yucaipa Thunderbird product made it back and played in 241 Major League games with the White Sox hitting a combined .224 with 46 homeruns and 130 RBI’s.
Following the 2018 season Davidson elected free agency and got picked up by the Texas Rangers. But, after spending the entire 2019 season in AAA Nashville, he elected to become a Free Agent again.
In the following off-season the Reds picked up the talented infielder and on July 24th they selected his contract and brought him back to the MLB. After a short 10 day stint on the IL, Davidson was ready to make his mark in August of last year. But, after getting just 43 at bats in 2020, the Reds Designated the Veteran for Assignment in the off-season and after clearing waivers he elected Free Agency again. The Dodgers then picked him up in the off season and haven’t regretted it a bit.
Davidson As a Dodger
Davidson has shown his complete offensive arsenal in 2021. He is hitting .285 has 25 homeruns and has an OPS of .985. His OPS has been above 1.000 in the 3 consecutive months of July. August and September, and he has also hit .285 or better in every month but June. He hit .298 in July, .314 in August and now. 327 in September. So, he has been super explosive and equally as consistent
Translation
Obviously what Davidson is doing is very impressive, but, to be fair, it must be noted that it is being done in AAA OKC. So, the question then turns to whether or not what he’s doing translates to the next level. In my opinion, it absolutely does and here’s why.
Davidson has become really, really good at using all fields. What was once an adjustment is now just part of his arsenal. It’s no longer something he has to try and do, it’s just something he has become natural at. And, not only does he hit to all fields, he does so with power.
No one hits the ball harder than Matt Davidson! Davidson is slashing .289/24/.991.#Dodgers @okc_dodgers pic.twitter.com/wU9fAUX7p9
— Dodgers Daily (@dodger_daily) September 17, 2021
Davidson has what has been termed as “Buggy Whip” with his barrel. He reminds me of Chris Taylor in this vein in the sense that he releases the barrel like he’s cracking a whip. As a result, it’s different when he hits the ball. It looks different, it sounds different and the fact that he has hit a 112 mph single, up the middle, is proof that it is different. Here is how Davidson’s 112 MPH single looked against Albuquerque.
Up Next
Davidson has shown an incredible amount of consistency and is absolutely 1st class in how he approaches the game. Kust rrecently he was placed on the 60 day IL, but only stayed on the IL for 11 days, so his toughness can’t be questioned.
I do believe that Davidson will eventually get another chance in the MLB because his exit velocities are elite, he has shown consistency over an entire season, and…..he has GRIT! He is a first Rounder that is, no doubt, First Class!
