The Pirates signed Noah Davis to a minor league deal earlier this week, as per Davis’ MLB.com profile page. The right-hander elected minor league free agency in October, qualifying for the status due to multiple career outright assignments and not being added back to the Twins’ 40-man roster after being outrighted in September.
After making his MLB debut in the form of a single inning of work for the Rockies during the 2022 season, Davis has now played in each of the last four Major League seasons, albeit with not a ton more playing time than that initial cup-of-coffee appearance. Davis has 27 games and 62 1/3 innings under his belt, with a 9.53 ERA, 18.5% strikeout rate, and 9.2% walk rate.
A lot of the damage has come from the long ball, as Davis has given up a whopping 17 home runs in his 62 1/3 IP. Ten of those 17 homers came during Davis’ three seasons in Colorado, and he then allowed seven more runs over 11 innings with the Dodgers and Twins in 2025. The right-hander actually began the 2025 season with the Red Sox on a minor league contract, but Los Angeles swung a trade for Davis in late March, and then designated him for assignment in July. Minnesota then claimed Davis off waivers but things didn’t do any better for the righty in Minnesota, and he finished his 2025 campaign an 18.00 ERA.
Now entering his age-29 season, Davis also doesn’t have great numbers in Triple-A or even in Double-A, though 2025 marked the first time he’d been utilized almost exclusively as a reliever. The results were better, with Davis posting a 3.88 ERA, 26K%, and 11.5BB% across 48 2/3 innings and 35 appearances with the Dodgers’ and Twins’ Triple-A affiliates.
While this improvement hasn’t translated to success against big league batters, Davis’ possible upside as a reliever was enough to get the Pirates interested in a look during Spring Training. Between Pittsburgh’s recent success in producing arms and new pitching coach Bill Murphy’s track record with the Astros, there’s some reason to believe Davis might be a late bloomer with some help from the Buccos’ pitching development team.