The Orioles are atrocious this season. They might be one of the worst teams of all time. That's not hyperbole, as they are on pace to go 45-117 and they're pretty certain to unload their best player in Manny Machado here in the next few weeks. With a team this bad, they obviously have some players who aren't having good seasons and, in fact, they have many. Unfortunately, Chris Davis is having a bad season for the ages.
Davis is hitting .158/.234/.281 with a 43 OPS+, 110 strikeouts in 278 at-bats and a -2.2 WAR.
- The worst batting average for a qualified player ever is .179 (Rob Deer, 1991; Dan Uggla, 2013)
- The worst WAR ever is -4.0 (Jerry Royster, 1977). Davis is on pace for -3.9.
- Davis has broken the Orioles career record for strikeouts with 1,312. He's played 978 games for them. The record was previously held by Cal Ripken (3,001 games).
Among players who currently qualify for the batting title, there are 163, here's where Davis ranks:
- Average: 163rd
- On-base percentage: 162nd
- Slugging percentage: 162nd
- OPS: 163rd
- OPS+: 163rd
- WAR: 163rd
- Strikeout percentage: 3rd
- wRC+: 163rd
We could keep going, but there's little reason to further pile on. It's been a rough go for Davis.
The contract certainly seems like an issue for the Orioles, too, as Davis is on the third year of a seven-year, $161 million deal.
Can we offer up a glimmer of hope here, though? Davis has been unbelievably fickle in his career. Here's his OPS+ by year: 128, 85, 51, 89, 121, 168, 96, 147, 110, 95 and now 43. There isn't really a trend there at all. He's just all over the place. He finished third in MVP voting in 2013. He's twice led the majors in home runs. Now he's historically bad. It isn't out of the realm of possibility that Davis bounces back here in the next year or two with a big power season.
For now, though, it's a bloodbath.
