The A’s are designating corner infielder J.D. Davis for assignment, reports Jeff Passan of ESPN ( X link ).
MLB.com’s Martín Gallegos reports ( on X ) that the A’s are recalling outfielder Lawrence Butler from Triple-A Las Vegas in what is presumably the corresponding move. Oakland hasn’t announced the transactions, which will likely be made official tomorrow with the A’s off tonight.
It’ll end a brief stint in Oakland for Davis, who landed with the A’s in somewhat controversial fashion. He and the Giants went to an arbitration hearing over the offseason. Davis won that hearing and was set for a $6.
9MM salary. Arbitration salaries aren’t fully guaranteed until Opening Day unless the team and player agree to terms before the hearing, though. The Giants signed Matt Chapman a couple weeks into Spring Training.
Rather than push Davis to the bench, the Giants released him to get out from under most of the money. San Francisco paid him 30 days of termination pay, around $1.1M, and sent him to the open market.
Davis’ extremely late entry into free agency didn’t do him any favors. He signed with the A’s on a $2.5M deal that contained an additional $1M in incentives.
His run in green and gold didn’t go especially well. Davis lost a couple of weeks to an adductor strain and appeared in 39 games. He hit .
236/.304/.366 with four homers in 135 trips to the plate.
That’s essentially league-average production in a pitcher-friendly home park and a down overall run.
