SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. -- Henry Davis didn't expect to be back in Louisville so soon. He thought he was going to Indianapolis with his teammates.
The Altoona Curve had just fallen short of a playoff berth, ending their season in mid-September. Since the Class AAA season lasts another two weeks, the Pirates have used that time at the end of the year to give their top prospects a taste of what the highest level of the minor leagues is like. Endy Rodriguez got that call, as did Quinn Priester, Malcom Nunez and three other prospects.
Davis was not among them.
“I thought I would play there, especially after missing a lot of time and finding out that I had been playing hurt," Davis told me on the field after taking batting practice at Scottsdale Stadium Tuesday. "I thought that 10 games there would have helped build into here, but I can’t make excuses. I did what I could on my own.”
Davis's "here" is the Arizona Fall League, and he knew he would be headed here shortly after the minor-league season concluded. He didn't want to unplug yet, so he called up ex-teammates from his alma mater at Louisville and asked them if they could go back to their old stomping grounds and throw him batting practice from 45 feet to better simulate higher velocity and spin.
When the group watched him hit, they felt something was off. This wasn't the same swing that made Davis the No. 1 overall draft pick in 2021.
Luke Brown, the Pirates' ninth-round pick in 2021, played alongside Davis for years in college, but was always one affiliate behind him in 2022. He hadn't seen Davis swing in person in a year. When he did, Brown and Davis' other friends started to diagnose what exactly was different.
"He has probably seen me swing more than anyone else in the world," Davis said of Brown. "Him being able to say, ’This is in a different position than it was,’ because he hadn’t seen me since the beginning of the year, really helped me get my swing back because there were some bad mechanics I had worked myself into while playing with a broken wrist."
When asked what was different about his swing, Davis, not knowing exactly where to start, responded, "a million things."
“It just wasn’t the swing," he said. "It was a lot of exaggerated moves. You’re going to be successful as a hitter when you’re short and compact and repeatable, and I was none of those things. I didn’t have great awareness for where my body was. A lot of that is two months without playing, and some of it is working in swing mechanics where I was trying to not hurt my wrist.”
Watching Davis in the Fall League, it's clear he's found his swing again. Those batting practice cuts Tuesday looked remarkably similar to the ones he took at Pirate City back in spring training, and almost certainly as similar as the ones he'll take back at the Pirates' Florida home later this month. A short, compact stroke, staying low before opening up at the end. It's been described as unconventional. It works for him.
24 seconds of Henry Davis BP. Just talked to him about, well, everything. Story to come for @DKPghSports pic.twitter.com/RUR4SV3wmJ
— Alex Stumpf (@AlexJStumpf) November 9, 2022
He's looked closer to his old self offensively as well. While his final month in Altoona was far from bad, there was some rust there. As a member of the Surprise Saguaros, Davis has posted an .875 OPS over 17 games played and was named an All-Star in the League.
It's not as though his career was at all hinging on if he had a successful Fall League, but after a year of unforeseen challenges, finishing the year with some on-field success is a nice way to end a year where he was forced to try to get better away from the diamond.
"I'll definitely look forward to using the lessons I learned this year missing time," Davis said. "Taking the moments I learned from that going into 2023, which will be a great year. Take it for what it's worth and move forward. Learn from the bad and take the good with it."
____________________
The wrist is feeling better.
Davis was a baseball magnet this past year, getting plunked 20 times in just 59 games played. Every hit by pitch around the wrist and hands invites trouble, as Davis found out on May 8 when he was struck in the left wrist by an errant Danny Cody fastball. It was sore, but initial X-Rays didn't indicate there was a fracture.
Davis was hit in the ninth inning. After the game, he was told he was being promoted to Class AA Altoona. He was cleared to play medically, and getting one step closer to the majors was on the table. He sucked it up and made the trip north to Pennsylvania.
“I pretty much played through anything," Davis said. "It’s something as a catcher you take a lot of pride in.”
After two games, it still didn't feel right. He had another X-Ray on the wrist. This one found a non-displaced fracture in that wrist.
"If I knew it was broken," Davis clarified, "I wouldn’t have been playing.”
Davis was shelved for a couple weeks before returning in June. After a few weeks of play, the wrist was bothering him again. The medical staff said he shouldn't be feeling anything anymore, so they did more imaging. There was still a fracture. Back to the injured list. This time, it cost him a trip the Futures Game and kept him out of the Curve's lineup until the end of August.
“I was pretty frustrated," Davis said. "I’m 100% on board with if you’re banged up, it sucks, but make of it what you can and be a good teammate. I was most frustrated that I ended up finding out that I was playing hurt… It could have been the end of my season.”
That time on the shelf forced Davis to learn, in more definitive terms, a lesson all ball players need to accept: You can only control what you can control. For someone who elevated his game from hitting last on his travel ball team at 15 years old to the first overall draft pick at 21, mostly through determination of will and work ethic, that is easier said than done.
When he hit the injured list again, Curve manager Kieran Mattison had a message for Davis. If he wasn't able to play, still find a way to "profit from it." So Davis looked at specific areas where he could improve.
Jason Kendall is an advisor to the Pirates now, so Davis picked his brain about what it takes to be a big league catcher, as well as how to position his body to better absorb those fastballs off of his body. He worked to improve his skills behind the plate so that if he gives a pitcher a sign, they know they can trust him. The beauty of the chase of trying to get better helped him get through the tough times.
"I do feel like I checked all the boxes of all the things I could do this year that was in my control," Davis said. "At the end of the day, it’s not going to leave a good taste in your mouth. I know that my capabilities are much higher than what I did this year."
There were some unexpected positives, too. During his rehab time, Davis also got to meet Termarr Johnson, the Pirates' first round pick in this year's draft. Davis reached out to him shortly after Johnson was taken in the draft. Now, he got to know him a bit, and the people watching in Bradenton, Fla. got to take a peek at two of the organization's top prospects together.
“He’s a great kid," Davis said. "It’s a blessing. You never know what’s going to be bad and what’s going to be good at the end of the day. I’m on the shelf, but I get to spend time with a kid that’s going to be a massive impact on our future. I may not have been able to be in a lineup with him other than Pittsburgh for the next year or two if I hadn’t been down there.”
There's a lot of people in Pittsburgh who want you guys to be in the Pirates' lineup sooner rather than later, I joke.
“I hope that’s soon," Davis said, smirking. "It’s what I'm working for every day.”
____________________
ALEX STUMPF / DKPS
Henry Davis watches batting practice Tuesday in Scottsdale, Ariz.
Do you allow yourself to think about it?
"Going to Pittsburgh?" Davis replies.
Yeah.
“It’s all I think about," he answers.
Back in Altoona at the end of the Curve's season, Davis said he was going to reach the majors in 2023. Even with the injuries this past season, he's on a very good trajectory to do that. He may start in Indianapolis or make another pit stop in Altoona, but the Pirates haven't shied away from aggressively promoting him. After all, his call to Altoona came after just 30 professional games.
That's part of the player-centric culture the Pirates have been building. Davis has earned that opportunity and he's getting it. He wants to help establish a winning-centric culture on top of it. After seeing so much of the farm system last year, he knows it's possible.
“In the baseball world, some of the guys that are in the prospect rankings may get some of the attention," Davis said. "But we’ve got a lot of good players. All of them are going to have an impact. We all want to and it’s what we strive for every day. We feel like we can contribute at the next level, but it’s not just the guys who are in the papers getting the attention. It’s all of us that are heading in that direction. The staff is, the coaches are. I’m very optimistic for what’s to come.”
Winning has certainly not come easy for this franchise over the past decades. They have posted losing seasons in 26 of their last 30 seasons and have just endured their worst three-year stretch since the 1950s, which includes losing at least 100 games each of the last two seasons.
Next year could bring the first serious wave of young players that the Pirates have been developing to the majors. That would go a long way to improving the roster and, by extension, their win-loss record. But how much of building a winning culture is something the players can do, and how much of it is something that is out of their control, like the front office or ownership?
"I don't think any of it is out of our control," Davis said. "There are things I can do every day, whether it's preparing well for the game, having a team at-bat, being where I need to be on the field, backing up the base, running balls out. I think doing the little things well will carry over. That's something I pride myself on, and my teammates do too. Moving forward, we want to win more games. Those things will help."
GETTY
Henry Davis during a game at Sloan Park, Oct. 31 in Mesa, Ariz..
____________________
Originally, Davis thought he would go play winter ball, but he has shelved that idea. His rationale is, "if the at-bats were that important, I would have been in Indianapolis.”
Instead, once the Fall League wraps at the end of this week, Davis is heading back home. He'll take a week or 10 days and actually relax.
“I’ll be right back down Pirate City right after Thanksgiving," he said. "Right back to work. That’s what I enjoy.”
You know, they might get sick of him there if he keeps showing up to work.
“I hope so," he jokes back.
Earlier, Davis said that 2023 was going to be a great year. There are signs of optimism that next year could be a step forward for the major-league team. Some young players have their first full year of experience under their belt, and Davis and plenty of other top prospects are on the radar to finally reach the majors.
What's going to make it a great year for him?
"Everything. Just getting to play and be around these guys, continue to get better and move forward to winning Pirates baseball."
