Chris Davis joined Rob Long & Vinnie Cerrato on 105.7 The Fan on Tuesday afternoon to talk about being back in the fold for the O’s in 2016, the difference between snow in Baltimore and “snow/ice” in Texas, and jumping on Dan Duquette’s back.
Chris said that, though his “heart was in Baltimore,” his head was telling him that he needed to see the free agency process through, and that he got a bit nervous as negotiations dragged on.
“There was a point,” Davis said, “where I was thinking, ‘is there anything we can do to expedite this process?'”
Still, he was glad to see that owner Peter Angelos had a personal investment in the proceedings.
“Any time the owner steps forward and openly says that he wants you back, you feel wanted.”
Despite that, Davis knew to respect agent Scott Boras’ experience in these matters. The “slow market,” as Davis described it, this winter didn’t help matters.
When the Orioles reportedly made an offer to Yoenis Cespedes, Davis noticed.
“The beautiful thing was, even though they did put in an offer [for Cespedes], Peter Angelos said the $150 million offer was only for Chris Davis. When I saw that they were exploring other options, I started thinking…if we want to wait until the last day [of free agency], how beneficial is it to me and to the team that I ultimately sign with?
“When the Cespedes thing happened, Scott [Boras] and I started talking – we love the city, we love playing for the Orioles and everything that entails, we’ve had success here…this is a good place for us.
“And then like two days later it was like – click – done.”
Davis is also hopeful that the structure of his deal will allow the team to continue to sign players this offseason.
The deferred money was the Orioles saying, to Davis, that “we’re not just gonna like sign you to this lump sum of money and then just give up. We’re gonna sign you and we want to keep going.
“As a player I was like…I want to jump on top of Dan Duquette’s shoulders and be like ‘YEAHHHH!’ Do something crazy, lead the charge…”
That part of the interview is at 15:55, and it’s worth listening to to hear Davis’ primal scream.
