Chase’s choices: Decisions UA’s Davis has made have put him in prime position for MLB Draft

The choices you make matter.

The choices Chase Davis has made have shaped the person and player he has become.

Those choices are meaningful to the organizations considering the All-American Arizona outfielder in the 2023 MLB Draft, which begins Sunday in Seattle.

Davis is expected to be the Wildcats’ third first-round pick in the past four years, joining Austin Wells (2020) and Daniel Susac (2022). Mock drafts project Davis to go anywhere from 14th (Boston Red Sox) to 27th (Philadelphia Phillies) after he batted .362 and slugged 21 home runs as a junior at the UA.

Draft day brings us to the most recent of Davis’ decisions: Rather than attend the event at Seattle’s Lumen Field, Davis elected to celebrate the occasion at his mother’s home in Elk Grove, California.

About 50 family members, friends, ex-teammates and former coaches are expected to attend the party. Barbecue and Mexican food are on the menu.

Only a handful of people would have been able to accompany Davis had he gone to the draft. That just wasn’t enough.

“Chase has a big heart,” his mother, Jamille Moens, said. “He really recognizes that you don’t get where he’s gotten without a lot of different support, a lot of different people playing different roles at different times.”

“He wanted to invite everyone who’s been on this journey with him,” said Tommy Davis, Chase’s father. “People who’ve been supportive of him, he wanted them to be there.”

The invitees include UA coach Chip Hale and two of his assistants, Trip Couch and Toby DeMello. Davis wouldn’t have crossed paths with them if not for two choices he made earlier in his life.

The first came in 2020, when Davis passed on a signing bonus that could have approached $1 million. He had committed to Arizona, and he stuck with that commitment.

Then-UA coach Jay Johnson didn’t expect Davis to make it to campus. Perfect Game ranked him as the No. 9 high school player in the country in the class of 2020 and the No. 1 player in California.

Johnson was shocked — but elated — when Davis’ name wasn’t called during the pandemic-shortened ’20 MLB Draft.

“He didn’t feel that was the best opportunity for him,” Tommy Davis said. “If he can go to school, develop, get bigger, stronger, faster ... he’d have an opportunity to leave Arizona as a first-round kid.

“He’s turned into one hell of a baseball player.”

Moens said her son made a bet on himself, adding: “Hopefully the bet pays off.”

It certainly appears that it will; the lowest projected signing bonus for a first-round pick in this year’s draft is $2.8 million.

Sticking it out

Davis only worked with Hale, Couch and DeMello because he decided to stay at Arizona. Johnson left the UA after the 2021 season — in which Davis, despite his credentials, barely played — to become the coach at LSU.

As Tommy Davis tells it, when Johnson reached out to Chase, “he just let the call go to voice mail.”

Again, Chase Davis turned down what could have been a lucrative opportunity. Again, he put loyalty above personal gain — in this case potential earnings from name, image and likeness.

“He stuck it out,” Moens said. “It worked well for Arizona, and it worked well for him.”

Davis eventually became the “superstar” Johnson predicted he would be. In just two seasons, Davis clubbed 39 home runs, third most in UA history. From 2022 to ’23, he raised his batting average by 73 points and lowered his strikeout rate from 22.8% to 14.4%.

Chance to grow

Davis’ first season at Arizona required patience of a different sort. It required another choice:

Davis decided to be the best teammate he could be that year.

The 2021 Wildcats had one of the most prolific offenses in the nation. That lineup would propel them to the College World Series.

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Four of its members were drafted that year, three more the next (and three more could go this year). Open spots were scarce, even for a talent as prodigious as Davis.

Did he want to play? Of course. Everyone wants to play.

But Davis recognized that it wasn’t the time or place to think about himself. He also saw how the experience could be beneficial.

“I looked at it as an opportunity to be able to grow and get better,” Davis said at the outset of the 2023 season. “Whether I felt like I should have been playing or not, that doesn't matter.

"I was on one of the best teams in the country at the time, and I just wanted to be the biggest supporter there — the first guy off the front step after someone does something good, or picking up a teammate. I felt like I had a huge role on that team, and other guys had an even bigger role.”

Moens says Davis has a high “EQ,” which is short for emotional quotient, or emotional intelligence.

“He’s very intuitive to people’s emotions and connecting to people,” she said. “Understanding how to respond to people and relate to people.”

When Chase was little, and his younger brother, Jordan, wanted something that Chase had, Chase eventually would give it to him, Moens recalled. When Chase was 10, he told his dad, completely out of the blue: “When I make it to the pros, I’m going to take care of you and mom.”

“Who is this kid?” Tommy Davis wondered. “A doggone 10-year-old taking on a caretaker role.”

Chase Davis’ parents didn’t ask him to take care of them. They both have good-paying jobs. He just has a giving nature.

Moens said a coworker approached her, unsolicited, to praise Davis after he participated in a baseball clinic during winter break.

“My son could not say enough about Chase,” the coworker told her.

“That was so great to hear,” Moens says now. “That’s Chase.”

Making connections

One final choice sheds light on Davis’ makeup, which is just as important a consideration for potential MLB suitors as his OPS.

Davis spoke English and Spanish when he arrived in Tucson, but he decided to major in Spanish to further his mastery of the language. That skill will allow him to connect with almost anyone in the clubhouse. Per MLB, 30.2% of players on opening-day rosters were of Latino or Hispanic descent.

“Teams that know it love it,” Tommy Davis said.

Chase’s decision not to transfer also left an impression.

“We’ve heard from so many organizations how much character it showed that he didn’t leave when he could have,” Tommy Davis said.

The choices you make matter. They all add up.

“That’s why I know this kid is gonna be OK,” Tommy Davis said. “I don’t have to worry about what’s going on with him. 

"He’s a special kid. I expect good things to happen to him."