Wade Davis is not a robot. Sorry to start this out with something so controversial, but it’s the truth. If you ask Wade Davis if he’s a robot, he will tell you that he is not. Of course, a robot masquerading as a human would tell you no so you’d believe he wasn’t. Maybe my premise is off. Either way, the reason we think Davis is a robot is because he’s kind of the best reliever on the planet, and the consistency he’s shown is something that you don’t see from relievers very often. Hence, he’s a robot. Or a cyborg, if you will.
When the Royals traded Wil Myers, Mike Montgomery, Jake Odorizzi and Patrick Leonard to the Rays for James Shields, Wade Davis and Elliot Johnson, some within the organization called Davis the key to the trade. That, of course, was mocked quite often by those who follow the Royals because Davis was, well, not a good starter. He’d actually been okay as a starter for the Rays, but not good enough to keep them from pitching him in the bullpen in 2012 and being willing to include him with a guy who actually was a good starter in a deal.
The Royals saw the starting potential, and why wouldn’t they? A big, 6’5” righty with multiple pitches seems like exactly the kind of guy who should be able to start games. Only he was worse as a starter with the Royals than ever before. It was almost like his time in the bullpen had tainted him from being slightly below average to being just plain bad. By August, the Royals had seen enough and they banished Davis to the bullpen to end the season. In seven games, he went 10 innings, gave up three hits and just one run, which meant a 0.90 ERA. He walked four and struck out just seven, though, so I don’t think anyone was too excited about the Wade Davis era.
When spring training began in 2014, the Royals didn’t quite know what to do with Davis. He had the profile of a starter without the success, so he began spring training in a battle to join a rotation led by Shields, Jason Vargas and Jeremy Guthrie. He was competing with guys like Yordano Ventura and Danny Duffy along with Bruce Chen. Then, what seemed like bad luck at the time turned into something that helped turn around the team’s fortunes. Luke Hochevar, who had emerged just a season earlier as a very good reliever, would have to undergo Tommy John surgery. At that time, the Royals decided that Davis would go to the bullpen to fill the role that was previously Hochevar’s.
I distinctly remember people not happy about Davis even being on the roster. I was in Surprise when the news of Hochevar’s injury happened. Sometime that week, Davis threw three really good innings against the Giants. All his stuff seemed to tick up more than I had even expected it to, so I was already coming around to him being in the bullpen. Of course, Ned Yost decided that Davis would be his eighth inning guy. He gave up a run on Opening Day in a loss. He gave up two more against the White Sox a few days later in what turned out to be a win. He actually got the win in that one. And then he came in to clean up a mess against the Twins when he ended up making a throwing error to allow two inherited runners to score. He had a 4.26 ERA, two blown saves and wasn’t looking like a very good relief option.
Little did we know that he had already started a pretty cool run. In his second appearance of the year, he struck out a batter. He struck out at least one batter in 22 straight appearances. From that game in Minnesota through the end of the season, Davis went 8-1 with just one more blown save. He gave up just five runs on 35 hits in 65.2 innings while he struck out 99 and walked 18. His ERA was 0.69. He teamed with Greg Holland and Kelvin Herrera to form one of the deadliest 7-8-9 trios in baseball history, and helped to lead the Royals to Game Seven of that season’s World Series.
What’s crazy is that he came back in 2015 and backed up one of the best seasons ever by a reliever with another great one. You all know what he did last year. He went 67.1 innings, gave up 33 hits, struck out 78 and walked 20. He was potentially even more valuable because the Royals lost Greg Holland in September and didn’t even really have vintage Holland for most of the year anyway.
And now this year, he’s doing it again. He’s thrown 26.1 innings and given up 14 hits. He’s struck out 26 and walked 11. The strikeouts are down and the walks are up, so there’s some hint of concern, I guess, His fastball velocity has been down on the whole for the season, but it’s worked its way back up both last month and this month. He’s averaged 96.6 MPH on it in June. For reference, he averaged 96.7 MPH last May and 97.3 MPH in August, but those were the only months he threw harder than he has this month. His cutter has been basically as filthy as it was last year and the year before. The control issues would concern me more if they didn’t mostly coincide with his April where his velocity was down a bit.
In all, it’s been a pretty magical run for Wade Davis in the Royals bullpen. Since they just couldn’t deal with him starting anymore, he’s made 174 regular season appearances, going 20-4 in 175.2 innings. He’s allowed 20 runs (19 earned) on 88 hits while striking out 220 and walking 58. He’s saved 38 games and blown five and has 51 holds as well. We are witnessing one of the greatest three year runs of a reliever ever. And without it, it would be easy to say that the Royals wouldn’t be the two-time defending American League champions and the defending World Series champions. It’s been quite a ride.