Pirates still confident former No. 1 overall pick Henry Davis can do it all: 'There's no panic'

This Sunday, a former No. 1 overall pick inspired audible excitement from a Pirates coach, and no, it wasn’t Paul Skenes.

During a live batting practice session at Pirate City, the 2021 No. 1 overall pick Henry Davis perfectly timed a first-pitch sinker from left-hander Tim Mayza. But instead of launching an imposing hit, Davis sent it to the opposite field for what could have been a double to right-center field in the scrimmage scenario. “Oh, yeah!” shouted the coach.

Henry Davis inspires a lot of confidence in the Pirates

The 25-year-old acknowledged that after a forgettable 2024 season, he had to turn things around in the batter’s box. One of his goals while training in Tennessee for most of his offseason was to get to a place where he could focus on taking the ball to the middle of the field.

Last season, manager Derek Shelton said that Davis became a little too rotational with his swing and, consequently, his pitch chart became quite pull-prone. Davis, who is usually a guy who looks for fastballs successfully, posted an average of just .056 against 157 four-seam fastballs in the MLB in 2024, according to Baseball Savant.

Now, Davis has a simple but efficient setup at the plate. His hands are quieter when he loads than last year and he is not as crouched. Essentially, Davis said he has gone back to basics.

“A lot of the things that have led me to be the hitter that I am over the years,” Davis told the Post-Gazette on Saturday, “I walked away from them last year and never really got to my feet the last two times in the majors.”

“But, encouraged by the direction I’m going. And obviously, [I’m going to] work every day and try to put myself in the best possible position.”

Last spring, discussions about Davis focused on his defensive development. After breaking into the majors as a right fielder in 2023, Davis played exclusively as a catcher or designated hitter last year.

The evolution of Henry Davis

Now, something that has been a constant throughout Davis’ baseball career has been called into question: can he hit? Certainly, Davis has plenty of evidence from his time in the minors that could boost his confidence.

But Davis is currently focused on generating confidence from his current work on the hitting side rather than what happened in the past.

“I definitely [did] a couple of things early last year that got in my way and put me in a tough spot to cover all parts of the zone and be a tough out, which is something I take a lot of pride in,” Davis said. “So going back to that, I actually felt really good about my work at Triple-A last year. In the few short seasons [in MLB], it was hard to translate.”

However, what did translate in 2024 was Davis’ defense. According to several advanced metrics, Davis showed that he can at least be an adequate MLB catcher, though he still has room for improvement.

While Davis’ volume of batting reps outweighed his work as a catcher at times during the past offseason, he was still diligent in trying to become a better defensive catcher. One area he looked to improve was receiving breaking balls in the zone and being as aggressive as possible, within reason, to catch them early.

“I had decent success in the other zones,” Davis said. “That was the one area that I really felt like I could gain some margins.”

As general manager Ben Cherington expressed on Friday, Davis’ development has not been straightforward. Rather, the catcher who has hit .290 with a solid .944 OPS in the minors has been challenged, either by injuries or by his performances in MLB games.

“We believe he’s going to be better for having gone through it,” Cherington said. “The same reasons why we would bet on him coming out of the draft – the skill, the work ethic, the willingness to take on a challenge, the toughness – all those things are still there.

A different scenario for Davis

Now, Davis finds himself in a different scenario than last season when it comes to being part of the Pirates’ Opening Day roster. Not only does he need to prove that his modified swing and approach can help him reach his full potential at the plate, but he also has to fend off Endy Rodriguez and Jason Delay, as Cherington said Joey Bart will be one of the Pirates’ two catchers.

Regardless of how this spring plays out and whether he makes Shelton’s team out of camp, Davis remains a coveted product within the organization. The franchise still has great optimism that Davis can achieve it all less than four years from his draft date.

“There’s no panic,” Shelton said. “We know he’s going to be a good player. We know he’s going to be a good hitter.”