J.D. Davis continues to be a steal for the Giants
The San Francisco Giants and New York Mets are on opposite ends of winning this year. The Mets are holding onto an NL East title, while the Giants are likely ending their season under .500. While the Mets are winning more games, the Giants may have taken a bigger win when they acquired J.D. Davis from the Mets.
The Mets, who needed a bat that could hit left-handed pitching, turned to the Giants and Darin Ruf. Now, the Mets were not aggressive at the deadline at all. The trade to acquire Ruf has been nothing short of a disappointment, and it’s starting to look like the Giants fleeced Billy Eppler.
Davis, 29, has instantly become a big producer for a struggling Giants lineup. In 41 games with the team, Davis has a .885 OPS and is batting .271 overall with the team. His confidence has grown since becoming an everyday player for the Giants, and he’s happy to be closer to home.
“When I first came over here, I had that mindset that the last two months of the season was to just do some scouting reports, take some notes on these pitchers and these arms, these teams in this division. Don’t really worry about the results, it’s more so about the quality of at-bats and then just go out there and compete, have fun with it,” he said during Sunday’s postgame. “I’m back in my hometown — my family and friends, I see all the time. Obviously that’s great, not being 3,000 miles away.”
For Davis, he was the same as Ruf while in New York. A platoon player, playing every three to four days to face left-handed pitching. Now that he’s having consistent bats against both right- and left-handers, the confidence is following right along.
We can’t say the same for Ruf. In just 29 games with the Mets, Ruf is hitting an atrocious .152 with no home runs. He’s been a strikeout victim 20 times in 66 at-bats, and only has a total of 10 hits in a Mets uniform. Eppler wasn’t expecting this bad of a struggle, and to add insult to injury, the other three prospects acquired in the deal are impressive in the Giants’ farm system.
Thomas Szapucki
The flame-throwing left-hander has been excellent out of the bullpen for the Giants so far. The 26-year-old has a 2.53 ERA in 10.2 innings of relief. He’s racked up 14 strikeouts so far, with his fastball touching 98-99 mph. While it’s unclear if he’ll stay in the bullpen or move to the rotation next year, the Giants appear to have a very good left-handed arm wherever he may play.
Carson Seymour
A right-handed pitcher, Seymour has been pitching for the Eugene Emeralds, the Giants’ High-A affiliate. He has limited opposing batters to a .229 batting average in 29.1 innings. He has an astonishing 13.19 K/9 and recorded a 13-strikeout game back on Aug. 31.
Nick Zwack
Another lefty, Zwack is also in Single-A Eugene. Exactly like Seymour, Zwack has a 3.99 ERA in 29.1 innings. An 11.05 K/9 to his name has both of these prospects showing high potential. While Zwack is 24, which can be considered ‘old’ for Single-A, the 2021 draft pick is finding a nice groove with his new organization.
We still have lots of playoff baseball to be played, and Ruf could end up picking it up at the right time. While Mets fans wait for that to happen, it appears the Giants have won the deal in the long-term. It’s impossible to fully evaluate trades two months after they happen, but this Giants team is looking confident heading into 2023.
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