Kind of a shitty week for Kyle Davies. He went on the disabled list. Wednesday he was cut by the Royals. And now it turns out he was arrested the day before, for disorderly intoxication.
History will remember Davies as one of the 347 people traded for Octavio Dotel, but Royals fans will remember him for five unremarkable seasons. Or, perhaps quite remarkable: Fangraphs makes the argument that he might have been the worst starting pitcher in baseball over that span. We'd debate that, if only to save the Royals the ignominy of paying the worst starting pitcher in baseball $3.2 million this year.
So Tuesday morning might have been the perfect storm. Davies was injured, so he had too much time on his hands. He knew he was soon to be out of a job. And he was in Tampa, the place where happiness goes to die. The result: this mug shot for Hiram(!) Davies.
"I embarrassed myself and my family," Davies said. "I made a foolish mistake. I'll learn from it, and I'll get past it."
A day later, was giving quotes about his release. The Royals claim they had no idea about the arrest, and they're going to stick to that story. Even the appearance of cutting a player during an off-field legal issue is usually enough to warrant a grievance from the MLBPA. Which would lead to the only appropriate way for the Royals' year to sputter to a close: them being forced to keep an injured, out-on-bond, overpaid, terrible player on their 40-man roster for the rest of the season.