KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Relief Wade Davis returns to the Royals, the team he helped win the 2015 World Series title.
The Royals and Davis agreed a minor league contract on Wednesday, and the 35-year-old right-hander will go to spring training trying to earn a spot on the major league list.
Davis is a three-time All-Star who had 47 savings for the Royals from 2013 to 2016. Kansas City acquired him in Tampa Bay in December 2012, turned him into a full-time downloader in 2013 and traded him to the Chicago Cubs after the 2016 season. He pitched the 2015 World Series final against the New York Mets, launching a third offense after Wilmer Flores.
He spent a season in Chicago, completing a four-year, $ 12.6 million contract, with three options that ended with a total of $ 35.1 million in salary. He then signed a three-year, $ 52 million contract with the Colorado Rockies.
Davis made 43 National League saves in 2018 and 15 in 2019, and then made just five appearances with two saves during last year’s pandemic season, when his ERA reached 20.77. The Rockies released him in September.
He has 139 saves in 12 major league seasons, going 63-52 with an ERA of 3.81. He goes 4-0 with eight saves in more than 30 games in the postseason.