The Cubs added Brennen Davis to the spring training roster Wednesday, marking the top outfield prospect’s first big-league camp invitation.
The spot opened up when left-handed pitcher D.J. Snelten arrived at camp with an elbow injury, the Cubs announced. The team sent Snelten, a non-roster invitee, home. He is scheduled to start a strengthening program in about six weeks. There is no timetable for Snelten's return to baseball activities.
Davis, 21, is one of two Cubs prospects who cracked Baseball America’s preseason Top 100 last month (also pitcher Brailyn Marquez). A year ago, the Cubs used Davis as an extra player from the minor-league side in three big-league spring games. He then spent the shortened season at the South Bend alternate site.
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“Not everybody got to get the work that that Brennen did last year in South Bend,” Cubs manager David Ross said Wednesday. “So, everybody's in a different place, and it's nice when you get to come into this type of environment, see MVPs, Gold Glovers, Silver sluggers, All-Stars all around the field and watch how they work and their routines. And you can learn a lot from that.”
Ross first saw Davis play even before the Cubs selected him in the second round of the 2018 MLB Draft. Davis participated in a workout at Wrigley Field when Ross was a special assistant for the Cubs.
“I've had a lot of interaction with him,” Ross said. “Great kid, willing to work. Just saw him in the hallway – glad he's here. … Just excited to watch him continue to develop.”
MLB
Davis’ presence in camp reflects how pleased the Cubs have been by his development already. In 2019, with the Single-A South Bend Cubs, Davis hit .305 with eight home runs in 50 games.
At the alternate site the following year, Davis “got his first taste of failure,” Cubs vice president of player development Matt Dorey said on the Cubs Talk Podcast this winter.
Dorey continued: “We were all waiting for how he would respond to that. And, not surprisingly, he leaned right into it and got back to work. His last three weeks in South Bend were as electric as any position player we had there at camp.”