Chicago White Sox: Time to put Matt Davidson in the starting lineup

Matt Davidson is tearing it up so far this year. Now the Chicago White Sox should let him do it every day.

For the last three years, the Chicago White Sox had to be wondering when, or even if, Matt Davidson would finally make an impact for them in the big leagues. Two years of miserable minor league hitting and one unfortunate White Sox debut later, and here we are.

So far, the show’s really been worth the wait.

With a three-for-four night against the Kansas City Royals on Monday, including his fourth home run and four runs batted in, Davidson gave us another glimpse of what the Sox must’ve hoped for when they acquired him from the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2013. Of course, he followed that up with a 0-for-four night on Tuesday, but that’s just baseball. Even after yesterday, the slugging third baseman/designated hitter is second on the team in batting average (.333) and runs batted in (15) and leads the Sox in home runs (four). Not bad for a guy that only hit .223 in 346 games over three seasons with the Triple-A Charlotte Knights. It may be early in the season, but if nothing else, Davidson’s performance should encourage White Sox fans.

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Of course, this all leads to one rather puzzling question: why isn’t Davidson playing every day? On one hand, Rick Renteria likely doesn’t want to take at-bats away from the player formerly known as Todd Frazier. I mean, he’s not going to hit .156 forever, right? Also, despite his poor average last year (.225), he did hit 40 home runs. It’s hard to take that potential power out of the lineup. Why not at least make him the primary designated hitter over rookie Cody Asche? Given his production, that’s an absolutely fair question.

By just about every traditional statistic, Davidson absolutely deserves to start—most likely at designated hitter. Kind of hard to argue that a guy holding the team’s Triple Crown shouldn’t be an everyday player, isn’t it? Also, beyond the normal statistics, Davidson is just simply hitting the daylights of out the ball. Fangraphs estimates that

Also, beyond the normal statistics, Davidson is just simply hitting the daylights of out the ball. Fangraphs estimates that 50% of Davidson’s contact registers as “hard”, compared to only about 14% hard contact for Asche and 26% for Frazier. And whereas neither Asche and Frazier can’t buy hits for love or money, Davidson’s batting average on balls in play is a sky-high .455. Basically, if he even touches the ball, it’s probably going to yield a good result.

And that’s where the hang-up comes in.

As has been the case with Davidson throughout his career, his production comes at a price: a lot of strikeouts. In 45 plate appearances this year, he has struck out 17 times. That makes for an unsightly strikeout rate of 37.8%. On top of that, he’s only walked once. So, at this point, he’s sort of a “two true outcome” hitter: strikeout or hit the ball really, really hard. For as rough as Asche’s had it at the plate, I suppose he at least makes more contact. And Frazier? Well…he hit 40 home runs last year. That’s all I’ve got.

All that said, let’s be clear about this: even with his strikeouts, there’s still no reason Davidson shouldn’t be in the lineup every day. As it stands, the White Sox are, quite clearly, one of the worst offensive teams in baseball. Across the league, they’re 22nd in batting average (.223), 20th in runs batted in (64), 28th in home runs (14), and 25th in on-base percentage plus slugging (.633). Can they really afford not to consistently play one of their best hitters because he strikes out too much? Plus, it’s not as if hitting against right-handers vs. left-handers has mattered to him, either.

Next: How are the Chicago White Sox' top prospects doing?

Davidson is going to go through his lulls as a hitter. That’s part of his track record. And pitchers will start adjusting to him as they do for everyone. But the Chicago White Sox have waited too long to see what they have in Matt Davidson to not play him now. Their investment in him is finally paying off. Now it’s time to see just how much he’s got to give.