Now An Oriole, Chris Davis Has No Hard Feelings For The Rangers

When they square off with the Baltimore Orioles to determine which of the two American League Wild Card teams advances in the playoffs in Arlington on Friday night, the Texas Rangers will see plenty of familiar faces; O’s manager Buck Showalter, first baseman Chris Davis and relievers Tommy Hunter and Pedro Strop all have history--recent history at that--with the team.

Perhaps the most intriguing of these Rangers castaways, in the context of their showdown on Friday, is Chris Davis; Davis (a native of Longview, TX) was traded along with Hunter at the trading deadline in 2011 in exchange for reliever Koji Uehara and, in his first full season in Baltimore, put together a .270 average and 33 home runs.

Though Davis says he was aware that he wasn’t going to be in Texas for long, even before the Rangers traded him, he doesn’t harbor any ill will toward the team that drafted him.

“I think I kind of wore out my welcome in Texas, so to speak,” Davis said Thursday, per the Dallas Morning News. “I was doing everything I could to hang on but once those guys signed (Adrian) Beltre and Mike Napoli, I kind of saw the writing on the wall.

“I have no hard feelings. I’m very appreciative of the fact they gave me a chance to go play somewhere else. Things could have worked out differently. But I’m happy here.”