Pittsburgh Pirates Prospects: Henry Davis Promoted to Double-A

Louisville catcher Henry Davis (32) scores against Vanderbilt during the seventh inning of the 2019 NCAA Men's College World Series game at TD Ameritrade Park Friday, June 21, 2019, in Omaha, Neb.Vu Lou 062119 058
Louisville catcher Henry Davis (32) scores against Vanderbilt during the seventh inning of the 2019 NCAA Men's College World Series game at TD Ameritrade Park Friday, June 21, 2019, in Omaha, Neb.Vu Lou 062119 058

The Pittsburgh Pirates have promoted one of their most exciting prospects, sending backstop Henry Davis to Double-A Altoona.

Pittsburgh Pirates fans haven’t had much to cheer about this weekend after the demoralizing series loss to the Cincinnati Reds, but at least there has been some pretty exciting news this Sunday evening. The team has promoted catching prospect Henry Davis to Double-A Altoona.

The news was first announced by Jason Mackey:

Davis had been demolishing High-A pitching. In 96 plate appearances with the Greensboro Grasshoppers, Davis was batting .350/.448/.600 with a .464 wOBA, and 179 wRC+. Davis was showing off his light-tower-power with five home runs and a .250 isolated slugging percentage. he only had a 7.3% walk rate, but healthy 18.8% strikeout rate.

Davis has been one of his level’s best batters, ranking 5th in wRC+, second in wOBA, and fourth in OPS. This wasn’t Davis’ first rodeo with the Grasshoppers either as he already had 24 plate appearances and 6 games played with the team in 2021. In that small smaple size, he had five hits, two homers, and four walks. Between this year and last year’s sample size, Davis has a 1.050 OPS with Greensboro.

Davis had been the number one overall pick in 2021’s draft. Although many predcited the Pittsburgh Pirates to go with Mareclo Mayer, the team ended up selecting Davis in a very strategic move.

Davis went underslot, which helped the Pirates secure contracts with their overslot picks like Anthony Solometo, Bubba Chandler, Lonnie White Jr., Owen Kellington, and Braylon Bishop. Going into this year, Davis was considered a consensus top 50 prospect by all major prospect ranking outlets.

Next. Hayes an Example of How Errors Can be Misleading. dark

Davis recieving the promotion to Double-A Altoona gives the Curve another talented player on top of the already stacked line-up. Davis will now catch some of the team’s best pitching prospects like Michael Burrows, Carmen Mlodzinski, Kyle Nicolas, and eventually Quinn Priester once he returns. He’ll also be in a line-up that houses Nick Gonzales, Liover Peguero, Connor Scott, Matt Fraizer, Jared Triolo, and Lolo Sanchez. It also shows on the Pirate part they’re still willing to move prospects up the system with more aggression.