Ike Davis Selfishly Hid Injury In 2013

Late last night, Mike Puma of the New York Post reported that embattled first baseman, Ike Davis, failed to report an oblique injury to team management for the majority of the 2013 season.  In doing so, Davis put himself in front of the team.  Davis explained:

“I thought about saying, ‘Hey, I would like to take a couple of weeks off, because 

I’m not feeling great, but then the timing was bad and it was when I was getting sent 

down. It would have been a great time, but it looks bad and I just can’t say that. It 

makes me look like a baby. It looks like I’m whining about how I [stunk]. I was 

terrible, now it’s over.”

Davis was batting just .161 when he was demoted to Triple-A Las Vegas on June 10th.  At that point, Davis had forced the Mets and their fans to endure more than two months of absolutely awful baseball on his part.  Davis represented a void in the middle of the lineup that helped to contribute to a 23-35 record by the time he was sent down.

Davis continued:

“I probably should have said something earlier, but what are you going to do? I 

wanted to play better, I didn’t want to come out. If I was hitting .380, I probably would 

have been like, ‘Maybe I should let this cool down so I don’t miss [extensive] time,’ but

 when you’re hitting .200, you can’t take weeks off. “It wasn’t to the point I couldn’t 

swing. It would hurt the first couple of swings pretty bad in practice, but if I just got it

 loose it was better. But, yeah, it was just bad timing. “I had an oblique injury for the 

whole season, basically."

Ikes season came to an end on August 31st when the oblique finally let go and there was no hiding it any longer.  His final offensive stat line was a gruesome .205 with 9 home runs and just 33 runs batted in over 317 at-bats.

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There's no two ways about this.  It was an epically selfish move by Davis.  What his year the different between 74 wins and a playoff run? No.  But when a team is struggling so mightily to score runs, Davis simply has to do whats best for the team.  Instead he did what he thought was best for Ike.  that too is probably why this information finally became public.  An oblique injury at least partially explains his lackluster season.  It certainly explains his power struggles last year and, if true, means a rebound season is more likely.

The Mets now have some decisions to make.  ESPN's Adam Rubin believes this news makes it more likely Davis is traded. I'm trying to decide if it makes him more or less valuable.  Is Ike more likely to rebound in 2014 assuming he's healthy?  Sure, but how many teams are going to line up to take on a player they may not be able to trust.  Its difficult to see where Ike's motivations lie in this instance.  On some level I'm sure he thinks he's defending himself, but in reality I think he just hurt himself more in the long run.