Article: Davis Schneider’s Offensive Woes Leads to Demotion

[Simon Li]

It felt like just yesterday Davis Schneider was launching balls over the Green Monster, one of the hottest hitters in baseball who earned the nickname “The Babe” from Brandon Belt. How quickly things change in the major leagues.

Davis Schneider had an excellent spring training for the Blue Jays, slashing .333/.487/.633 in 39 plate appearances and earning his spot on the roster as a platoon bat against lefties. There was reason for optimism that he’d found himself and could contribute in a limited role. Projections were high even after a down 2024 season, with all of them, including FanGraphs' OOPSY (which incorporates bat speed) expecting Schneider to have an above-average offensive season. Unfortunately, that has not come to fruition.

Davis's offensive production consists of one bloop single in the early going. He's running a .067/.333/.067 slash line, good for a 57 wRC+ over 21 plate appearances. The underlying metrics are similarly ugly, with only a .099 xBA and .110 xSLG, as well as a 33.3% whiff rate. He also has not had a single hard-hit ball. Davis is walking at a career-high 23.8% clip, but that also comes with a strikeout rate near 40%. The Jays felt it was better for Davis to reset in Triple-A. He was optioned to Triple-A on Thursday and even started for the Bisons.

Addison Barger will most likely be replacing Schneider. Barger was called up when Nathan Lukes went on the paternity list, and Lukes will most likely come back and claim Schneider’s spot. Barger hasn’t been at his best in Buffalo, putting up a 98 wRC+. However, his batted ball metrics have been excellent. At the time of his promotion, he was leading all Triple-A hitters in 90th percentile exit velocity, and ranked fourth in expected slugging, fifth in average exit velocity, and 15th in hard-hit rate. Barger will add some power potential to the Blue Jays lineup, and although he’s a lefty hitter instead of a righty like Schneider, he has more defensive versatility. He's able to third and right, which Davis has not covered. Myles Straw’s emergence also made it harder for Davis to find playing time in the outfield.

Davis still has a penchant for getting on base, and in his previous two seasons had a knack for getting barrels on pulled fly balls. That hasn’t happened early on this season, and since Davis has below-average bat speed and doesn’t actually hit the ball that hard, he relies heavily on those pulled fly balls to do damage. According to Baseball Savant's new metric that tracks pulled balls in the air, Schnedier has dropped from 37% in 2023, to 24.4% in 2024, to only 14.3% in 2025.

Davis has become much more selective as well, potentially to a fault, dropping his swing rate down to only 30%. Pitchers have avoided giving him pitches that he could turn on, and as a result, Schneider hasn’t swung much. Schneider could go down to Triple-A and find the magic that made Blue Jays fall in love with him and his mustache again, but he’ll have to figure out how to adjust back in a more effective way. Getting full-time reps in Buffalo should help him more than a few scattered at-bats against lefties in Toronto.

 

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[Spanky99]

He needed this, he can't get right in limited playing time, go get fixed kid.