Better know your Blue Jays 40-man: Jonathan Davis

Jonathan Davis (who I call Anthony at least half the time) is a 28-year-old (he’ll be 29 in May, he is five months older than Teoscar Hernandez) right-handed hitting outfielder.

Over the last three seasons, he’s played in 70 games. He has a .200/.286/.296 batting line, with 3 home runs and 7 stolen bases (caught once).

Davis was never a big-time prospect, but Matt had him on his top 5 over 25 list last year. He wrote:

Davis has been up in the majors the last two Septembers, and though he hasn’t hit at all and frankly looked pretty overmatched, that’s plenty to warrant mention here. It’s hard for me to see him ending up as more than a fourth outfielder, but at Dunedin, NH and Buffalo he struggled in initial stints before adjusting and producing, so maybe he’ll surprise. That said, even being a fourth outfielder implies significant improvement, his 44 wRC+ in 122 plate appearances is an org guy or emergency up/down role.

He has speed, great range in the outfield, and enough of a bat that he can fill-in in the outfield here and there, the makings of an almost perfect fourth outfielder. The unfortunate part is that we have four outfielders in front of him (plus Cavan Biggio) and, with the likelihood of carrying a 9-man bullpen, I can’t see that there is room for him.

ZiPS figures he would hit .214/.299/.357 (if he were to get major league playing time).

PECOTA sees a .220/.313/.368 batting line, but they only see him getting into 8 games.

I think he’ll be spending most of the season in Buffalo, ready to come up if there is an injury, as much as he would be good to have around as a defensive replacement for George Spring late in games.

He can make the most amazing catches: