A’s bring back Khris Davis on minor league contract

He’s back!!!

The Oakland A’s bid a sad farewell to a longtime favorite last winter when they traded Khris Davis to the Texas Rangers. But now, just six months later, he’s back!

The A’s announced Wednesday that they signed Davis to a minor league contract. He will initially report to their rookie-league complex in Arizona, but the “expectation is that his next stop will be the Triple-A Las Vegas roster,” reports Shayna Rubin of the Mercury News.

From 2016-18, Davis was one of the best sluggers in Oakland history, but his production fell off sharply in 2019-20. The A’s traded him away in February, avoiding the nearly $17 million salary he was owed in the final year of his contract, in a swap with the Texas Rangers that sent similarly expensive shortstop Elvis Andrus to the Bay Area.

Everybody was rooting for Davis to bounce back in Texas, but instead he opened the year on the injured list, and then upon his return to action he batted .157 in 22 games. The Rangers released him in mid-June.

Now he’s found his way back to the organization he called home for a half-decade. However, that doesn’t necessarily mean we’ll see him back in green-and-gold anytime soon, or even at all. He would first need to re-prove himself in the minors, then make his way onto the 40-man roster, and then find a vacancy on an active MLB roster that already features plenty of right-handed bats and values defensive versatility. Even if Davis does rediscover his bat, he’s limited to designated hitter on the other side of the ball.

“We love having him back in the organization,” said manager Bob Melvin, via insider Ben Ross. “It’s not like he’s 40 years old. We signed him back with the hope and intent that he starts hitting some long balls and maybe can help us out here at some point.”

Davis is age 33 right now, and his last good season was in 2018, but it costs basically nothing to give him another tryout and everyone here loves him. Why not?

Welcome home, Khris!