MILWAUKEE — Milwaukee Brewers outfielder Khris Davis recently received a death threat on Twitter serious enough for Major League Baseball to investigate.
Davis took a screengrab of the tweet, which was posted May 18 and included a racial slur and a threat to kill his family. Brewers general manager Doug Melvin said the team turned the matter over to Major League Baseball's department of investigations.
"All we do is turn it over to MLB security," Melvin said. "It is serious when that happens. We were just told it was handled. We don't get involved with it. We don't get details of it. Anything that is deemed serious, we all have MLB security at every city we go to. We have a card with a number (to call).
"You can't (take it as a joke) today if you look at the stuff every day on the news. We were told it's been taken care of.
"I'm sure it was (distracting). All this social media stuff, people think that it's good. A small percentage of it is good, to me."
Shortly after the tweet was posted, Brewers manager Ron Roenicke called Davis into his office to talk. The conversation eventually turned into the skipper reassuring the struggling outfielder he belonged in the big leagues.
"It was just the frustration of other distractions, really," Davis, who is in his first full season in the majors, said when asked if he had lost confidence. "It was never like, 'Oh, can I play here?' It was more of the things around me.
"He just reminded me a few things about hitting and told me I should be here. I believe him. I believe in myself."
Davis went 0 for 4 with two strikeouts on May 18 in a 4-2 loss to the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field to lower his batting average to .215 at the time.
Davis has been swinging well since meeting with Roenicke, hitting .407 with three home runs and five RBI in his last seven games.
"We'll see how my play plays out," Davis said when asked if clearing his mind of outside distractions has helped him at the plate. "I just let it speak for myself. I don't really have any comment on it. I can't say that's the reason why."
When Davis is on, the left fielder is driving the ball to right field with power. He hadn't been doing that early in the season but has multiple extra-base hits to the opposite field over the course of Milwaukee's past few games.
Davis was pulling the ball so much earlier in the season that teams began to shift on him.
"It was just where I was making contact," Davis said. "I never work on pulling the ball, honestly. That's not my thought process. It just happens.
"I'm just up there trying to get a good pitch and put a good swing on it. I work so much the other way that is just where it falls right now."
With a big distraction hopefully behind him, Davis was happy to hear the words of encouragement from Roenicke.
"They see me work every day, so I know they have confidence in me and in my work," Davis said. "It was good that we are on the same page basically. We are here to win ballgames. That's what I'm here to do."
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