With the 20th overall pick, the Blue Jays could select… Chase Davis?

Photo credit:Mike Christy/Arizona Athletics

5 months ago

Over the last four draft articles, we’ve looked at players that played in Texas. Thankfully, that trend will end in this article, although we’ll stick to the Southwest.

The prospect we’re looking at today is Chase Davis. Let’s look at his bio, his college statistics, what he offers, and his grades!

Chase Davis’ bio:

Chase Davis is a 21-year-old left-handed batting outfielder who attends the University of Arizona.

Like most of the 2023 college class, Davis went undrafted out of high school due to the COVID-shortened season. However, Davis was one of the highest touted players, raking as MLB Pipeline’s 83rd best draft prospect in 2020, and Baseball America’s 55th-best draft prospect that year.

As for 2023, he ranks as MLB Pipeline’s 22nd-best draft prospect, and Baseball America’s 28th-best draft prospect.

It’s been five years since the Blue Jays selected a player out of the University of Arizona, as they picked outfielder Cal Stevenson in the 10th round of the 2018 draft. He was later packaged in the Houston Astros trade at the 2019 deadline that saw Derek Fisher come back the other way.

Chase Davis’ statistics:

Davis didn’t play much as a freshman with the Wildcats, as he slashed .233/.343/.400 with no homers in just 35 plate appearances. He had a 32.3 K% and a 14.3 BB%. Defensively, he only had five put-outs, but didn’t commit an error.

He became a regular for Arizona in 2022, when he slashed .289/.414/.583 with 18 homers in 290 plate appearances. His K% dropped to 22.8%, while his BB% had a slight jump to 16.6%. With more opportunity, he also played in the outfield more often. He had two assists and three errors for a .979 fielding percentage.

Davis broke out in 2023, when he slashed .362/.489/.742 with 21 homers in 278 plate appearances. Moreover, he walked (15.5%) more than he struck out (14.4%). Defensively, it was his worst season according to fielding percentage, as he committed four errors for a .964 fielding percentage. However, he had five outfield assists.

Chase Davis’ tools:

With the bat, Davis has insane raw power from the left-handed batter’s box. He is able to hit the ball both to his pull side and the opposite field, this being due in part to his bat speed and strength.

His approach in his first two seasons was in question, as there was definitely some swing a miss in his game, and he only had a 68% contact rate in 2021 and 2022. However, a lot of those questions were answered after his fantastic 2023 season, owning a higher BB% than K%, and increasing his contact rate up to 80%.

Not just that, but the new approach in his junior didn’t sacrifice power, as his 21 home runs ranked 29th in the NCAA, pretty impressive considering how many players play Division I baseball.

As for his other three tools, Davis is an average runner. However, he also has one of the best arms in the entire class, as he’s able to stop runners in their tracks. Defensively, he is solid in the corners with average range. MLB Pipeline notes that a team that drafts him could move him to centre field to see how he does there.

Chase Davis’ grades:

As always, let’s look at his grades on a 20-80 scale from both Baseball America and MLB Pipeline.

Tool	Baseball America grades:	MLB Pipeline grades:
Hit	50	45
Power	60	55
Run	55	55
Field	55	50
Arm	70	60
Overall	55	50

Baseball America is seemingly higher on the 21-year-old, despite ranking him as their 28th-best draft prospect, compared to MLB Pipeline ranking him as their 22nd-best draft prospect.

Will the Blue Jays select Chase Davis?:

As always, the question is: “Is this player the best available when the Blue Jays pick?” Both Baseball America and MLB Pipeline seem to believe he’ll go in the mid-20s, while others believe he can go in the teens.

The raw power is there, but there are question marks about his contact rate and swing and miss. His arm is there, but he may be destined to be an average defender as a corner outfielder.

Davis may be one of the more polarizing prospects we’ve looked at, and it’ll be interesting to see how his career develops.