PEORIA, Ariz. – Seattle Mariners manager Bob Melvin didn’t tell Ben Davis what he wanted to hear. He told Davis what needed to be said.
“We had a nice little discussion on the phone this offseason,” Melvin said.
When the hello-how-are-you’s turned to baseball talk, Davis asked about getting more playing time in 2004.
Melvin put to him straight.
“I told him, ‘Give me a reason to put you into the lineup,’ “Melvin said.
Davis begins is fifth major league season trying to become what everyone has been saying about him from the first, that he’s not just a potential starting catcher but a potential All-Star.
As a wise baseball man once said, a player with potential means he hasn’t done squat.
Davis has owned squatter’s rights on squat since he came to the Mariners two years ago as the prize of a five-player trade with the San Diego Padres. He begins his third season with the Mariners and hasn’t done anything to knock Dan Wilson from the first-string catching job.
He’s a switch-hitter who batted .259 with seven home runs and 43 RBI in 2002, then .236 with six homers and 42 RBI last year. Those aren’t numbers that will win a starting job.
“This is a guy we expect to be an offensive force,” Melvin said. “He’s a switch-hitter who’s got some power. With the physical composition that he has, he’s a guy you would expect more production out of.”
Davis is 6 feet 4 inches and 225 pounds but has produced like a hitter half his size, with just 32 home runs in four major league seasons.
It’s time, Melvin and Davis both agree, for Big Ben to make everyone stop talking about his potential.
“We’d really like to see Ben become the player that his talent possesses,” Melvin said. “You warrant your playing time. Just to come in and say, ‘I need to play more to be productive,’ well, when you’re out there, be productive and you’ll get more playing time. He understands that.
“He knows it’s getting to the point in his career where he needs to produce to play every day. He’s potentially a No. 1 guy, and potentially a guy who can be an All-Star.”
All-Star? That’s a lofty expectation of a guy who hasn’t become a full-time starter yet. Davis believes he can be that player.
“I think as a long as I don’t try to do too much, as long as I get a chance to play every day, I think I can put up the numbers to warrant that,” he said. “I haven’t been able to put it together for a whole year and I’m working on it right now.”
Oh yeah, the whole-year thing. David would love to put together one of those.
Davis began last season like he had met his potential. He started 41 games and batted .294, hit five home runs and drove in 32 before the All-Star break.
Then he tried to tag out the Twins’ Chris Gomez at the plate in a mid-July game and wrecked his shoulder.
“I reached out and he took my arm and kind of pulled it across my body,” Davis said.
Davis wasn’t the same the rest of the season. He batted just .140 after the All-Star break and his playing time evaporated to just 24 starts.
“It wasn’t fun,” Davis said. “They did all the tests on it last year and they said it was a bad bruise.”
You keep playing with a bad bruise and, although Davis doesn’t use it as reason for his second-half decline, Melvin believes it contributed.
“Especially hitting left-handed,” Melvin said. “He struggled with his shoulder almost the whole second half. It would get a little bit better and then every time he’d have to catch a high pitch, he’d tweak it again.”
Davis said the shoulder has healed this offseason and it has felt fine at spring training. Now he’s focused on earning more playing time.
“Bob said that I’ll be afforded every opportunity to go out and win the starting job and play every day,” Davis said. “That’s all I’m looking for. I’m not looking for any special treatment. I’ve still got to go out and do my job and earn it.”
Until then, Melvin wouldn’t say whether Davis or Wilson is his No. 1 catcher.
“It’s too early to say,” Melvin said. “They’re both going to get playing time.”
Melvin is reluctant to dismiss Wilson because he brings so much to the catching job besides a batting average, RBI and home-run totals.
“Stuff you don’t read in the boxscore,” Melvin said. “He studies the opponent very well, he knows his pitcher very well, he can see what a pitcher has early in the game. If there are a couple of pitches that aren’t working for them, he knows how to get them through the game when a guy doesn’t have his best stuff.”
Davis is getting to that point, Melvin said.
“He has come a long way behind the plate,” Melvin said. “From what I heard when I got here last year, he was a guy who wanted to fit in, wanted to belong and wasn’t really into motivating his pitchers much. I found that not to be the case; he does a nice job with his pitchers. Some of the best games we had pitched last year, Ben was behind the plate. He’s come a long way defensively.”
Now it’s time to say that about his offense.
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