SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — When J.D. Davis entered his late-night screening of the “Dune” sequel on Friday, he was the San Francisco Giants third baseman. Fresh off slugging his second home run of the spring a few hours earlier, the doubts that had subsumed his offseason had fully subsided.
Awakening his phone from “Do Not Disturb” mode as the credits rolled 2 hours and 45 minutes later, Davis realized that confidence had been misplaced.
“I activated it and went, ‘Shoot, I’ve got eight text messages,’” Davis recalled Saturday morning. “I’m like, ‘What happened? Oh, that happened.’”
The texts were not from Farhan Zaidi or any of his deputies in the Giants’ front office.
Davis opened up social media, where he learned that Zaidi had brought in a new third baseman. Zaidi waited out super agent Scott Boras and late Friday night secured a bargain-bin deal with four-time Gold Glover Matt Chapman.
The agreement, for a reported three years and $54 million with opt outs after each season, was still pending a physical Saturday morning. A few minutes before 9 a.m., Chapman walked into the Giants’ facility, shortly after Davis finished addressing reporters at his locker.
“I assume somebody is going to come talk to me at some point,” Davis said. “I don’t really want to put my foot in my mouth because I don’t know what the gameplan is accordingly as far as what Farhan wants to do or how he wants to go about it. But I felt like I proved myself this past year, having just 30 or 35 bad games and not really wanting to take the backseat. However, I want to win games. I want to do what’s best for the team. I guess we’ll just go from there.”
While perhaps nobody is more directly impacted by the move than Davis, the incumbent third baseman who now is a bit of a redundancy with Wilmer Flores already on the roster as a right-handed hitting reserve corner infielder, adding a player of Chapman’s caliber carries teamwide implications.
All offseason, Zaidi preached of improving their defense, particularly on the field, where their ground ball-oriented pitching staff stood to benefit most. The Giants ranked first in the majors in ground-ball rate last season but worst in errors. Since nabbing center fielder Jung Hoo Lee in December, Zaidi had yet to address their personnel on the dirt besides extending a non-roster invitation to veteran shortstop Nick Ahmed.
New starter Jordan Hicks, one of many sinkerballers on staff, was so excited to team up again with Chapman that he texted him as soon as he heard the news. They were teammates in Toronto last season and, now, represent two of the Giants’ three biggest free-agent acquisitions.
“I said, ‘See you soon, congrats bro,” Hicks said. “He said, ‘Thanks, I’m pumped.’
“Since I’ve been here I’ve realized there are a lot of sinker guys here. I think just adding all the infield defensive pieces that you can is going to make this team a lot better. I think they just go hand-in-hand. … Obviously I played with (Nolan) Arenado (in St. Louis). Out of all the ones I played with in my life, I’ll take those two. You can’t really compare them to anybody else.”
One player whose defense drew comparisons to Chapman, fairly or not, was Casey Schmitt as he ascended to the majors last season.
After a hot start, Schmitt cooled off considerably, though, and entered camp fighting for a utility spot. Currently nursing a sprained ankle, Schmitt continues to take ground balls at shortstop, but the addition of another third baseman almost assuredly closes his path to a roster spot.
“That was cool to get those comps,” Schmitt said. “To get to meet him and play with him, I’m excited to go out there and get to work. … Every time he fields a ground ball, it’s so clean. I’m really excited to learn from him.”
It hits closest to home, though, for Davis, who is experiencing a little déjà vu.
This, after all, isn’t the first time he has teamed up with Chapman.
Nor is it the first time that Chapman causes him to lose out on playing time at third base.
“To be honest with you, we didn’t split much time,” Davis chuckled, recalling their time together at Cal State Fullerton.
Always the hotshot prospect, Chapman won the everyday job at third base. Davis was relegated to designated hitter for his first two seasons. Giving up hope on challenging Chapman for the third base job, Davis set his eyes on first base for his junior season, “but we had like a super senior who didn’t want to graduate,” he said with a laugh, “so I moved out to right field my third year.”
Since being drafted by the Mets, Davis continued to move around the field, looking for any opportunity to get at-bats. In 2022, he got the chance he had been seeking when he was traded to the Giants, who eventually made him their primary third baseman last season.
Although he scuffled after a strong start, Davis had reason to believe the organization was invested in him.
One takeaway from his arbitration hearing, he said in an interview earlier this spring, “was games as a starting third baseman. That was a role that wasn’t an argument at all.” Sometime around the holidays, with rumors starting to heat up between Chapman and the Giants, Davis received a phone call from their new manager.
Bob Melvin had publicly gushed about Chapman, who played for him for six years in Oakland, but he wanted to reassure Davis.
“He had extended his neck to Farhan in saying we don’t need a third baseman,” Davis recalled of their conversation, which he estimated lasted about five minutes. “He said his quotes saying ‘I love Chappy’ and when people ask me if I want Chapman on the team, of course I do. I’d be lying if I said I don’t want him. But at the same time I want to respect you and want you to know that I don’t think we need anymore reinforcement at third base. I think you’re our third baseman.’”
That, Davis noted Saturday, was more communication that Brandon Crawford received when the team had lined up an agreement with Carlos Correa and planned to shift their franchise shortstop to third base. In retrospect, he said he had no reason to believe Melvin had been disingenuous.
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“He did say, if there’s an opportunity to get him at the end of spring training, then moves can be made,” Davis said. “There were no promises. He also said that.”
Still, through the clubhouse rumor mill, Davis was of the understand as recently as last week that there had been no formal offer exchanged between the Giants and Chapman. So, when Davis made his bleary-eyed way out of the movie theater Friday night, “it was definitely a surprise,” he said.
Still in the dark Saturday morning, Davis said, “if Brandon Crawford didn’t get a phone call, I ain’t gonna get a phone call. It is what it is. It’s part of the business.”
And, no, the news didn’t spoil the flick.
“It was awesome. Definitely go see it,” Davis said. “It’s definitely a long one though. Get the large popcorn.”