SF Giants: The swing change that has keyed J.D. Davis’ early success
J.D. Davis leads the Giants in home runs (4) and RBIs (13) and, in conjunction with stellar defense, is on pace for a 6.5-WAR season.
MIAMI — Gabe Kapler likes to see his players outside of their typical environment, the baseball world, which can too often feel like its own bubble. So one day this spring, the Giants manager invited one of the club’s relatively new additions, J.D. Davis, out for a meal. They got to talking, and the conversation turned to what Davis wanted to achieve in 2023.
“Let’s just say he had really lofty goals. Coming off the sort of part-time player he was for us last year and the part-time player he was with the Mets, it was hard to visualize some of the goals that he had,” Kapler said. “Because how was he going to be that regular of a player for us?”
Almost three weeks into the season, Davis hasn’t only forced his way into regular playing time, those goals don’t look so lofty anymore.
Entering Tuesday’s game against the Marlins, Davis leads the team in home runs (4) and RBIs (13). Eighteen of his 35 balls in play have left the bat at 95 mph or harder, better than all but 14% of big leaguers. He’s second only to Thairo Estrada in most other offensive categories — batting average (.311), OPS (.960) — and only Estrada has been more valuable among San Francisco position players (on pace for 6.5 fWAR over 162 games).
Davis attributes any number of factors to his success since being acquired, along with three other players, for Darin Ruf (who is back in San Francisco, with a locker right next to Davis’ in their home clubhouse) in one of the most lopsided trades of 2022. His hands are back to full strength, after tearing a ligament in 2021. He’s finally receiving regular playing time, after being thrust between the infield, the outfield and the bench in New York. And it doesn’t hurt that Davis, an Elk Grove native and self-described “West Coast kid,” who often wears a tie-dye “Good Vibes Only” headband, takes pleasure in mashing for his hometown team.
But Davis believes the roots can be traced back to one specific change he made in spring training.
Midway through camp, Davis endured a particularly rough game: 0-for-4 with four strikeouts.
“So,” Davis recalled, “I said I’m not gonna strike out four times again. I’m putting my foot down.”
Literally.
Maybe you have noticed Davis wiggle, jiggle, thrust — whatever you want to call it — as he awaits the pitch in the batter’s box. He promises he’s not trying to be crude with these midsection movements, these not-so-subtle pelvic pumps (“I didn’t even know it was that pronounced,” he said with a modest laugh); it’s how he keeps his weight back on his heels, which is all the more important now that he eliminated the stride with his front foot in his swing.
What’s up with J.D. Davis’s new batting stance?… #SFGiants pic.twitter.com/RvWEmG5fZg
— SFGiantsJake (@sfgiantsjake) April 8, 2023
The no-leg-kick approach used to be Davis’ two-strike swing, so what better remedy after wearing the golden sombrero?
“He got into a two-strike count, spread out and just kind of put his foot down and made a very short move to the baseball and drove a ball well over the right-center field fence on a line with just a real, quick, easy, handsy swing,” Kapler said, recounting their March 14 Cactus League game against Arizona. “Since then, that’s the approach he’s been going with from the beginning of counts. He’s not waiting until he gets into a two-strike count. He’s just starting in that position. That’s enabling J.D. to see the ball a long time, make good decisions and be really accurate with the barrel.”
The early returns speak for themselves.
Even Davis’ strikeout rate, a gaudy 35.4% after arriving last season, has dropped to 22% so far this season, around league average and near a career-low he set in 2019, his best offensive season and, he will tell you, the last time he was fully healthy and receiving regular playing time like he is now.
“It’s been a while,” Davis said. “It’s kind of nice.”
Collaborating with hitting coach Justin Viele, Davis took inspiration from Trea Turner, Paul Goldschmidt and the Brewers’ Luis Urías, who all emphasize staying back on their heels and off their toes in their swings. The official, scientific terminology, according to Davis: “Just make sure my ass is under me.”
“Last year I was too tall and too much of a leg kick where I was swaying like a skinny tree in the wind,” Davis said. “I was coming down way too hard, and that led to the inconsistent contact and a lot of swings and misses.”
It’s been ever easier to insert Davis into the lineup on a near-daily basis, despite plenty of corner-infield depth (David Villar, Wilmer Flores), because of one of the goals Davis outlined to Kapler this spring, which had nothing to do with his swing. He wanted to win a Gold Glove.
This one might have sounded particularly outlandish. While Davis arrived with a sterling reputation as a hitter, his defense had never received much recognition. In six previous MLB seasons, Davis hadn’t finished one with a positive Outs Above Average (OAA) rating.
It doesn’t seem so crazy now, since Davis has made enough plays at third base in two-plus weeks to fill a season-long highlight reel. He spent most of this offseason in Arizona, training with infield coach Kai Correa and shortstop Brandon Crawford. While defensive metrics are notoriously volatile, Davis has been better than all but 6% of defenders this season, according to OAA.
“Since the season began, he’s played Gold Glove caliber defense and he’s been arguably one of the better bats in all of baseball,” Kapler said. “It couldn’t be a better start to the season. If this is who J.D. is going to be, it’s going to be a really good thing for the Giants.”