Sticking with position players that barely got any playing time with the big league team, today we continue the Season In Review with a former first round pick of the club. Infield prospect Logan Davidson
didn’t pan out as we all hoped when he joined the organization half a decade ago but at least he made it to the big leagues in the Green & Gold.
How was he acquired?
The Athletics tabbed Davidson as their first-round pick back in the 2019 MLB Draft, selecting the Clemson product 29th overall. Some players that went after him include Kyle Stowers, Hunter Brown and Ryan Pepiot. If only…
What were the expectations?
When he was drafted? To hopefully one day be a cornerstone player for a future A’s playoff team. But those expectations quickly fizzled as Davidson struggled at first to get his pro career going. He only played in 54 games at Low-A before seeing what would have been his first full season cancelled in 2020 as a result of the pandemic. He came back in 2021 playing the entire season at Double-A but struggled in his first taste of upper-minors pitching. He’d spend an entire extra year at that level the following season but showed minimal improvement as a batter.
After two years at Double-A he finally looked like he figured it out in ‘23 and earned a promotion to the highest level of the minors. And then it took him another two years to finally earn his way to The Show. At that point he was already 27 and his first-round pedigree was long an afterthought. If they A’s got anything out of him, it’d be more than they expected.
2025 Results
Davidson spent the first two months of the season with the Aviators and hit .263/.412/.397 with just seven long balls in the hitter-friendly PCL. That might look like a half-decent line but it was just barely above-league average for that division. Still, the A’s were sputtering and looking for a spark, and they turned to their 2019 1st-rounder to help provide that.
The lefty-swinging Davidson had his contract selected on May 23rd and he was in the starting lineup a c0uple of days later. He didn’t wait to make an early impression, collecting his first big league hit while going 2-for-3 with 2 RBI’s plus a walk in his first start. Not a bad first start in the big leagues.
But over the next month on the roster Davidson would be used sparingly as either a late-game defensive replacement or a pinch-runner. He only got into nine games for the A’s overall, going 3-for-20 with 12 strikeouts. Exactly one month to the day of his first big-league callup, Davidson would be DFA’d by the team that drafted and developed him for six years.
He was soon claimed by the division-rival Houston Astros but lasted just 22 games with their Triple-A affiliate. He’d then find himself claimed by another bottom-dwelling AL West squad when the Angels put in a successful claim. He’d spend the rest of the season on their big league roster, going 4-for-22 with 10 punchouts, but also his first homer in the majors.
2026 Outlook
Once the season came to a close Davidson elected to test free agency for the very first time. Set to enter next season at 28 years old, he doesn’t have much time left to establish himself in the big leagues so he’ll be on the lookout for an opportunity to get some at-bats in the majors. Teams don’t usually come busting down the door for corner infielders with little to no power though so he may have to take what he can get. Could the A’s elect to bring him back as a depth piece?
