The Baltimore Orioles aren’t giving up Chris Davis despite the hefty price it takes to re-sign him, offering the 29-year old a deal that’s very difficult to say no to.
Davis, who has been with the Orioles since 2011, made $12 million last season in Baltimore. Now, he’s getting an offer for $150 million over 7 years, which might not be the best he can get in the open market (haven’t heard of any specific offers from the teams usually throwing out these massive numbers), but for Baltimore, it shows just how badly they want him, not being a team that usually overspends, even if it’s for the best home run hitter in Major League Baseball.
The last three seasons have been great for Davis from a macro kind of look. He had a rough 2014, hitting just .196 and “only” 26 home runs. But in 2013 he hit 53 home runs and 138 RBIs while batting .286 with a 1.004 OPS. In 2015 he hit 47 home runs with 117 RBIs in 160 games, while leading the league in strikeouts as well (208). His .923 OPS was the second best of his career, and he certainly made the most of that crucial contract year.
Now it’s time to see if Davis accepts. His agent, Scott Boras, said the numbers are inaccurate, but agents lie more than anyone in the business, so it’s no real indicator of what actually happened. It’ll be the biggest deal in the history of the ball club if Davis signs, a player who was suspended in 2014 for testing positive, missing the team’s playoff performance which ended in the ALCS against the Royals. Davis said it was Adderall. The Orioles, but throwing this kind of money at him, are showing faith this kind of thing doesn’t happen again. There’s a lot more at stake this time.