The National League was founded in 1876 and in those 143 years and over 217,235 games played. In all of those years and all of those games, nobody has gone more games in a row without a single hit more than Chris Davis.
Chris Davis signed a 7-year contract worth $161,000,000 with the Baltimore Orioles in 2016 after four previous seasons of hitting 159 home runs. In 2013, the slugging first baseman was an All-Star and he smashed the most home runs that year with 53 dingers and hit 47 in 2015. However, Davis is a shell of his former self and since 2017 Davis has only his 42 home runs total.
In 2018, Davis batted a pitcher-like .168 over 128 games. That abysmal batting average is the worst for any qualified player in Major League Baseball history since the league adopted the current 162-game schedule. That’s not the record you want to hold.
This season, Davis is “earning” a whopping $23 million. In 2019, Chris Davis is batting .000 and has a paltry on-base percentage of .125. Just because you play for the O’s doesn’t mean your boxscore needs to have 0’s. In his 12 year career, Davis averages 212 strikeouts per 162 games. Hey Orioles, I’m willing to play for you and bat .000 for $500,000.
On Monday night, Chris Davis made history in the worst possible way. Davis lined out to left field in the bottom of the fifth inning in the Orioles game against the Oakland Athletics. This sad out made Chris Davis the owner of the longest hitless streak in MLB history with 47 consecutive at-bats without a hit. It wasn’t like Davis was facing Cy Young on Monday because Davis was the only Orioles starter not to reach base in Baltimore’s 12-4 win.
Chris Davis is now 0-47 dating back to last season, breaking a MLB record for longest hitless streak pic.twitter.com/C9H8Pjodfp
— Baseball Bros (@BaseballBros) April 9, 2019
The anti-Joe DiMaggio continued the streak by striking out in his next two at-bats and now gone 0 for his last 49, the embarrassing streak dates back to September 14, 2018. Infielder/outfielder Eugenio Velez should send Davis a gift basket because he was the previous owner of the dubious record for longest hitless streak when he did in during the 2010 and 2011 seasons while on the San Francisco Giants and Los Angeles Dodgers.
Some fun facts about Davis’ record futility:
- 569 other MLB players have had hits
- 75 pitchers have had hits
- Davis has struck out 29 times during the streak
- Davis has made $3.5 million during the streak
It doesn’t get better for the Baltimore Orioles because they still owe Davis $92 million in guaranteed money and they’ll be paying him for a long time. That contract has deferred payments through the 2037 season. Bobby Bonilla eat your heart out. Get excited O’s fans!
Orioles announce 6,585 fans at Camden Yards tonight. The lowest in the history of the ballpark for an open-admission game. The previous low was a year ago, April 9, when they had 7,915 against Toronto.
— Jon Meoli (@JonMeoli) April 9, 2019
Orioles fans are already asking if the Chris Davis contract the worst in history?
If the Orioles weren't paying Chris Davis $17M per year through 2022, is Manny Machado still in Baltimore? And if so, does that make the Chris Davis contract the worst in baseball history?
— Ryan McCrystal (@Ryan_McCrystal) April 9, 2019
Chris Davis has to go down as signing the worst contract in baseball history. Move over Albert Belle, who the Orioles also gave a truckload if money for zero return.
— 𝐊𝐲𝐥𝐞 𝐆𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐦 (@kylegrantham) April 9, 2019
Here's the issue: Chris Davis is making $161 million on this contract. It might go down as a top 5 worst contract in baseball history lol
— Dylan Villa (@TheDillyVanilly) April 9, 2019
https://twitter.com/VinnieIzzo/status/1115585658091974656
https://twitter.com/godisgreat122/status/1115587820117274634
Is the Chris Davis contract the worst return on investment ever?
— A-Bomb (@abomb112) April 9, 2019
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pTuOLzy4v94