Chili Davis

[Brock Beauchamp]

Charles (Chili) Davis had a long and illustrious career in Major League Baseball; drafted by the San Francisco Giants in the 11th round of the 1977 MLB Draft, he debuted in 1981 and played with the Giants through the 1987 season. He moved to Anaheim and played with the California Angels for two years before landing at the part we care about, the 1991 Minnesota Twins.

Davis, coming off a solid 1990 season with California (114 OPS+), signed a two-year, $4.5 million deal with Minnesota in January of 1991. The Twins, coming off a last-place finish in 1990 but maintaining some pieces from the core of the championship-winning 1987 squad along with some promising farmhands, signed Davis (along with Jack Morris) in an attempt to return to relevancy.

Davis did all the Twins asked of him and more, posting a 141 OPS+ with 29 home runs in the 1991 season. He switch-hit in the middle of the resurgent Twins lineup, leading the team in several categories on his way to a 3.3 rWAR as the primary designated hitter.

In the postseason, Davis was just as crucial to the Twins success as he had been during the regular season. In the ALCS, he went 5-for-17 with two doubles against the Toronto Blue Jays and then 4-for-18 with two home runs against the Atlanta Braves in the World Series. In game two of the World Series, his two-run home run pushed the Twins to a narrow 3-2 victory over the Braves.

Davis stayed with the Twins in 1992 and continued his productive ways, posting a 130 OPS+ over 529 plate appearances. Many of the balls he saw fly over the fence in 1991 became outs or doubles in 1992, as his home run count dropped from 29 in 1991 to just 12 in 1992. He recovered value by raising his batting average by roughly 20 points and raising his on-base percentage to a near-elite .386 that season.

1993 saw Davis return to the California Angels where he struggled for one year. Move the calendar to 1994 and Davis resumed smashing the ball, posting a 148 OPS+ in 1994 and a 146 OPS+ in 1995. Davis continued his career with the Angels, made a brief stop in Kansas City with the Royals, and landed in New York as a roleplayer for the re-emerging Yankees teams of the late-90s.

Chili Davis retired after the 1999 season.

View full player

[nicksaviking]

His career caught just the beginning of the era of offensive explosion. Had he started and ended his career a half decade later, he might have been the DH to break the HOF barrier. His OPS really took off in the second half of his career.

I always hated that late century Yankee dynasty, but I still was happy to see Davis win. I always thought of him fondly.

Kind of like the Dusty Baker situation with the Astros I suppose.