Cubs Rule 5 Draft Success Stories: Catcher Jody Davis

Background 
Jody Davis was born in 1956 in Gainesville, Georgia, a city of 42,296 people according to the 2020 census. It is about 45-50 miles northeast of Atlanta. He graduated from North Hall High School in 1974 and headed to Middle Georgia State University in Macon for a year. 

The New York Mets made him their third-round pick in the now-defunct January Draft in 1976. That summer he played for Marion in the rookie Appalachian League. In 50 games, he hit .232/.287/.366 (.652) with five doubles and five home runs. 

In 1977, he moved up to the advanced short-season, rookie league Little Falls Mets in the New York-Penn League. His offensive game arrived. In 64 games, he hit .290/.381/.514 (.895) with 11 doubles and 11 home runs. He maintained that kind of offensive performance in 1978 in his first full minor-league season. In 120 games for Lynchburg in the Carolina League, he hit .262/.362/.449 (.810) with 24 doubles and 16 home runs. 

In 1979, he skipped High A and went directly to Double A Jackson in the Texas League. In 132 games, he hit .296/.382/.513 (.895) with 23 doubles, four triples, and 21 home runs. 

However, at that time, the New York Mets had catchers such as Ron Hodges, and John Stearns, and Alex Trevino, and Butch Benton in the big leagues. So in December of 1979, the Mets traded Davis to the St. Louis Cardinals for Double A, left-handed, relief pitching prospect Ray Searage. 

In 1980, he played just 13 games at Double-A and then 45 games in Low A. So, it is understandable that the Cardinals didn’t protect him on their 40-man roster. 

What did the Cubs See
The Cubs clearly looked past his disappointing 1980 season in the Cardinals’ organization. Instead they looked at the fact that he posted an OPS over .800 the previous three seasons. A catcher who went from 11 to 16 to 21 homers as he moved up the Mets organizational ladder is noteworthy. 

They certainly also saw that his defense behind the plate was not very good… at all. He had a strong arm but committed a ton of errors. He had a lot of passed balls each year. Consider that in the late-70s era, the catcher’s role was to catch, work with the pitchers, block balls in the dirt, call a great game, control the running game and more. If they got a couple of bloop singles here and there, great. (Note: Slight exaggeration.) 

Cubs Tenure 
The 24-year-old Jody Davis made the Cubs roster for the 1981 season. In the strike-shortened season, he hit .256/.333/.361 (.694) with five doubles and four home runs. Those were solid offensive numbers for a catcher, but certainly not otherworldly. Then consider in those 56 games, he committed nine errors, that isn’t good. 

In the offseason, the Cubs traded for Keith Moreland from the Phillies to take over as the primary catcher. However, he proved to be even worse than Davis defensively and it wasn’t long before Moreland was moved to the outfield and Davis started 120 games behind the plate that year. He had 11 errors and 10 passed balls, but he threw out 38% of would-be base stealers. That season, Davis hit .261/.316/.404 (.720) with 20 doubles and 12 home runs.  

In 1983 and 1984, he started 140 and 141 games, respectively. In 1983, he hit .271/.315/.480 (.795) with 31 doubles, 24 homers and 84 RBI. He even received votes for MVP that year. He made his first All Star appearance in 1984. He hit .256/.315/.421 (.736) with 25 doubles, 19 homers, and 94 RBI. He finished in 10th place in MVP voting that year. While his .736 OPS translated to an OPS+ of 99, or just shy of league average. But again, for a catcher, it was significantly above average. In addition, in the NLCS that year, he played in five games and hit .389/.368/.833 (1.202) with two doubles and two home runs. That is an impressive series, though the Padres, and not the Cubs, represented the National League in the World Series. 

In 1985, he played in 142 games and hit .232/.300/.400/.700 (.30 doubles and 17 home runs.

In 1986, he played 148 games and hit .250/.300/.428 (.728). He played in his second All Star game. He made 141 starts behind the plate. He threw out 48% of would-be base stealers. We can question how they were handed out all we want, but you have to assume that Jody Davis was pretty excited to be recognized in 1986 with a Gold Glove. 

In 1987, he made 120 starts behind the plate for the Cubs. He hit .247/.331/.418 (.749) with 12 doubles and 19 home runs.  

In 1988, the Cubs made a clear decision to turn things over to a younger group of players. Shawon Dunston was 25. Mark Grace and Doug Dascenzo were 24. Rafael Palmeiro and Dave Martinez were just 23 in 1988. Even Ryne Sandberg was still just 28 years old. Jody Davis was now 31, and he basically split time with 24-year-old catching prospect Damon Berryhill. Davis, in 88 games, hit .229/.309/.337 (.646) with nine doubles and six homers. 

On September 29, 1988, the Cubs traded Davis to his hometown Atlanta Braves in exchange for right-handed pitchers Kevin Blankenship and Kevin Coffman. 

In his eight seasons with the Cubs, he played in 990 games. He hit .251/.313/.416 (.729) with 159 doubles, 11 triples, 122 home runs, and 467 RBI. He was a two-time All Star, twice received MVP votes, and even won a Gold Glove Award.

Post-Cubs Career 
Davis played two games for the Braves on the final weekend of the 1988 season. He was Atlanta’s backup catcher in 1989, and by May of 1990, he was released. He signed with the Tigers but played in just three more Triple A games before his playing career was complete. 

He retired in Georgia, and stayed out of baseball for about a dozen years. His first job in baseball came in 2003 with the Calgary Outlaws in the Canadian Baseball League. Unfortunately, the league folded halfway through the season. Davis’s squad was named the league champion due to their 24-13 record. 

In 2006, the Cubs called and he was named the Low A Peoria manager. He moved up to Daytona the following season and then in 2008 led them to the league championship. He spent time as a minor-league coordinator as well. He has spent time with the Padres and Reds organizations. 

In July 2023, he was named to the first Hall of Fame class for his Gainesville North Hall High School. 

You can follow Jody Davis on Twitter/X at @JodyDavisMLB.