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Chili Davis talked with ESPN’s Jesse Rogers and the ex-Cubs hitting coached basically confirmed earlier reports of a lack of connection between him and the players in 2018.
Davis was hired after the 2017 season, replacing John Mallee as Cubs hitting coach, but after just one year he was fired.
Here’s what he said to Rogers.
I talked with Chili Davis today. He wished the Cubs well and admitted things didn't always "mesh" easily or enough between him and the players. He said there are no hard feelings after being fired as the team's hitting coach on Thursday. https://t.co/K5my078qFs
— Jesse Rogers (@ESPNChiCubs) October 12, 2018
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So, no hard feelings and that’s pretty much expected as you’d think Davis still wants a future in the game. It’s not like he was gonna bad mouth the Cubs.
Anyway, he mentions that he didn’t really “mesh” with the players and that matches with earlier reports.
Mentioned last week on @Bernstein_McK on @670TheScore that some material players told Theo that they felt their swings/approaches had been altered for the worse. 2/2
— Dan Bernstein (@dan_bernstein) October 11, 2018
Here’s what Sahadev Sharma reported in The Athletic.
Yes, Davis should be helping them adjust, but it’s also on the players to be able to soak in that information and apply it properly.
But that seems to be exactly part of what went wrong. According to a source familiar with the situation, the Cubs aren’t saying this is Davis’ fault, but rather the team’s hitters not being ready for what he had to offer. Apparently, not many of the players, outside of a few like Ben Zobrist, Jason Heyward and a handful of others, really ever clicked with Davis. At one point last winter, Maddon suggested Davis’ arrival would be like the Cubs hitters moving to a graduate level program. It appears as though too many of them were a few credits shy.
Davis got his first MLB coaching job in 2010, with the Dodgers as a hitting coach for their instructional league and then joined the Red Sox organization in 2011. A year later he got the A’s hitting coach job and then returned to Boston to be the Red Sox hitting coach for three seasons.
The last two years have been rough for Davis, as he been fired by the Red Sox and Cubs. Davis might just be another example that being a successful as a player doesn’t always translate into coaching.
Davis was a three-time all-star during his 19-year careering, winning three world series titles, hitting 350 home runs and recording 2,380 hits.
All the best to Chili and his future. Simply sucks it didn’t work out with the Cubs.
