Former Chicago White Sox bopper Matt Davidson will play for Canada after trying to to in 2023. His grandparents are from the Winnipeg area and his mother is a Canadian citizen

By Bob Elliott

Canadian Baseball Network

Matt Davidson has hit 385 home runs in his first 17 seasons.

That’s a barrel full, a career for a lower case sultan of swat. So, you might think it might be difficult for the newest mystery member of Canada’s World Baseball Classic team to pick his favorite long ball?

“Most memorable?” repeated Davidson, the former Chicago White Sox bopper said from Peoria, Az. “Probably in 2018 ... opening day, I hit three in the same day, the third one was pretty special.”

Davidson’s roots trace back to Winnipeg where his grandmother was a nurse and his grandfather -- Dr. Daniel Johnson -- had a family practice before moving to California.

Serving as the White Sox DH and hitting clean up, Davidson’s day went like this at Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City on March 29:

_ In his second at-bat of the day, after flying out in his first plate appearance, he hit a 2-1 pitch off Royals starter Danny Duffy to deep left-centre cutting the Royals early lead to 4-2. Davidson had followed José Abreu’s homer for back-to-backs.

_ In the fifth, Davidson hit a 1-0 pitch from reliever Blaine Boyer to deep left. This solo homer put the White Sox up 5-4.

_ After walking in the seventh facing Justin Grimm, it was Brian Flynn facing Davidson. Flynn, had already given up singles to Avisaíl García and Abreu. Davidson’s scorching day continued by hitting a 1-0 pitch to left for a three-run homer to put the White Sox ahead 14-4.

On the day, Davidson was 3-for-4, with a walk, five RBIs and 12 total bases in a 14-7 romp before 36,517 fans.

Davidson joined the Tigers’ Dmitri Young (facing the Royals in 2005), the Cubs’ Tuffy Rhodes (against the Mets in 1994) and the Blue Jays’ George Bell (against the Royals’ Bret Saberhagen in 1988) as the only big-leaguers to hit three home runs on opening day.

His exit velocity on Davidson’s three home runs was 115.1 mph, 114 mph and 113.9 mph, to become the first player since Statcast was introduced in 2015 to hit multiple homers of 110 mph exit velocity or higher in the same game. He became the 14th Sox player (15th time) to homer three times in one game and first since Dan Johnsonn in Cleveland in 2012.

Davidson explained how he tried to play for Canada in 2023, but his mom or dad required citizenship, so he was not approved. This time around mom -- Candi Johnson -- had Canadian citizenship, however the WBC changed its going back a further generation to their grand parents.

One of five Arizona Diamondback first-round picks he was chosen 35th over-all from Yucaipa, Calif. Thunderbirds in 2009. That same year the Jays drafted RHP Chad Jenkins (20th) and LHP James Paxton (Ladner, BC) 37th over-all, but failed to sign him.

“I’ve only been to Vancouver and Toronto in Canada,” Davidson said, “when I see relatives from Winnipeg it is when they comes to see us.”

The breakdown on his home runs ... as he had

_ 228 in the minors at class-A Yakima, class-A Visalia, class-A South Bend, double-A Mobile and triple-A Reno in the Diamondbacks system, triple-A Charlotte in the White Sox minor-league ladder, triple-A Nashville in the Texas Rangers organization, triple-A Oklahoma City as part of the Los Angeles Dodgers system and triple-A Las Vegas as part of the Oakland minor leagues.

_ 54 more with the Diamondbacks, White Sox, Cincinnati Reds and Oakland in 306 big-league games.

_ And 103 playing in the Far East, one season in Japan with the Hiroshima Carp and the last two in Korea with the NC Dinos.

“I got to the point where I could make a better living by going overseas,” Davidson said, a teammate of American RHP Riley Thompson, who went 17-7 with a 3.98 ERA in 2025.

Also with the Dinos and the Canadians dugout is LHP Logan Allen, who went 7-12 with a 4.53 in 32 games (31 starts). He fanned 149 in 173 innings, while walking 67. Allen’s father Norman, grew up in Lachine, Que.

The third new name to Canadian circles beside Allen and Davidson, is 6-foot-7 lefty reliever Micah Aahman,who pitched at double-A last season. Combined at three starts he was 4-4 with a 3.30 ERA fanning 73 in 57 1/3 innings at double-A Erie, double-A Chesapeake and class-A West Michigan.

Ashman’s mother Marinda is a Canadian, from Cranbook, BC, who played volleyball at Brigham Young University from 1987-90.

Both Davidson and Allen received permission to play for Canada, however new Dino RHP Curtis Taylor (Port Coquitlam, BC) was not granted permission. In 2025, the former UBC Thunderbird was 10-4 with a 3.21 ERA in 31 games (24 starts) at triple-A Memphis. He whiffed 118 in 137 1/3 innings.

Davidson’s best season was in 2018 with the White Sox as he hit .228 with 23 doubles, 20 homers, 62 RBIs and a .738 OPS. He made 64 starts at DH, 41 at first base and 12 at third.

The most influential people in his baseball life?

“Oh, too many count,” he said, “but two people are Jim Holden (his pitching coach from age 10-to-18) and my former hitting coach Danny Davidsmier, We still talk today.”

Like a lot of high schooler he was a double duty man: pitching and playing a position. He made a few starts and closed out games.

And then the heart took over directing him to hitting? He said he “no. I probably loved pitching more.”

With the Sox he also made three appearances at pitcher, allowing one hit over three scoreless innings to become the 12th position player (13th time) to make three-plus pitching appearances in a season since 1973 (DH inception).

That put Davidson in a position player/pitching class along with Doug Dascenzo (five scoreless), John Cangelosi (four) and Jim Morrison (3 2/3 innings) as the only position players to start their pitching careers with three scoreless or more.

How about this factoid sports fan? Davidson joined Shohei Ohtani (2018) and Babe Ruth (1919) as the only players in major-league history with 20-plus homers and three pitching appearances in one season.

He also had two homers at KC, April 26, 2018 (a solo homer and a two-run homer facing Jakob Junis) in a 6-3 win and the next day he slugged two more (a solo against Danny Duffy in the fourth and a two-run homer off Tim Hill) in a 6-3, 11-inning win. That’s eight homers on the season at KC making him officially a Royal pain.

In all, he hit eight homers against the Royals in 2018 becoming the first Sox player since Adam Dunn (2013 facing Minnesota) to hit eight homers against one team in a single season. Gus Zernial (11 facing the St. Louis Browns) in 1950, owns the club record.

While he owned a lifetime .319 average against the Detroit Tigers, he owned the Royals with career numbers of a .304 average, 12 homers, 24 RBIs and a 1.093 OPS.

He made his mound debut with a 1-2-3 eighth in an 11-3 loss to Texas, Next was a 1-2-3, 10-pitch inning in a 10-5 loss the Blue Jays retiring Kendrys Morales, Yangervis Solarte and Teoscar Hernández. And he worked a scoreless inning in a 7-0 loss to the New York Yankees -- allowing a single to Aaron Hicks.

In 2020 he had three more mound appearances: a scoreless inning in a 13-0 loss to the Cincinnati Reds and a scoreless 1/3 of an inning facing the Chicago Cubs in a 10-1 loss.

He was finally scored upon in his sixth outing -- an Andrew Knizner single followed by a Brad Miller homer in a 16-2 loss to the St. Louis Cardinals as he pitched two innings.

The arm may still be willing and may be Davidson’s first love, but Team Canada wants Davidson to go deep.

Elliott: Canada hopes from WBC pop from Matt Davidson