Houston Astros corner infielder JD Davis has earned one of the final roster spots available just days before Thursday’s (March 29) Opening Day in Arlington against the Texas Rangers.

Left fielder Derek Fisher was the other lucky recipient of manager AJ Hinch’s pre-game notice to each player, Sunday, March 25, before the Astros took the field against the Miami Marlins for their last Spring Training game in Florida before heading back to Houston.

Consequently, Tony Kemp (2B/OF) and infielder Tyler White, after spending their spring fighting for roster spots themselves, were optioned to Triple-A Fresno.

Earlier in the week, Hinch told backup catcher, Max Stassi, he made the team.

“I was shocked, man,” Davis told MLB.com, Sunday. “I was emotional. He told me 15, maybe 20 minutes right before the game when we were about to go out to stretch. I was close to tearing up a little bit. He called me over in the middle of the dugout and just told me I made the roster and he’s happy that I made the team and he expects a lot out of me, playing first base, left field and third base, and just happy to be here.”

“Davis really performed well this spring and was arguably one of our best offensive players, and earned the right to make an Opening Day roster,” Hinch said. “He swung the bat extremely well, especially against left-handed pitching.

“You could see a sense of relief and also a sense of pride he made the team, and a little bit of emotion,” Hinch revealed. “He’s not a big emotion guy. I kind of dropped it on him in the dugout before the game and then he went out and hit a line drive off (Red Sox starter Chris) Sale, so it obviously didn’t bother him.” Indeed, Davis’ liner off the Red Sox ace’s hip knocked him out of the game.

Related: JD Davis Thinks It’s Autumn, ‘Cause He Keeps Raking

Bubbles’ Burst Bubble?

Davis, who will add left field to his third and first base flexibility, will apparently find his Minute Maid Park locker cleared out as quickly as it will be filled.

By most accounts, Davis’ roster placeholder will be removed once regular first baseman Yuli Gurriel recovers fully from his February 28 hamate bone removal surgery (including possible DL stay and/or minor league rehab), and serves his five-day suspension for his World Series Game 3 offensive dugout gesture.

Related: La Piña Caliente! Yuli Powering Astros Toward 2018 Playoffs

In fact, Gurriel’s recovery is moving along as scheduled, and then some. Astros GM Jeff Luhnow told the Houston Chronicle, March 14, that Gurriel began increased activity in mid-March on the practice fields at spring training, and was on track to meet the six-week projection for being cleared to play. That would put his return sometime around mid-April (if not earlier), suspension notwithstanding. In fact, if Gurriel is cleared to play, medically, sometime in the coming week, the earliest he could return is the April 3 home game against the Baltimore Orioles, following his suspension. Hardly enough time for Davis to get his cleats dirty.

Related: Yuli Gurriel To Return for April 13 Home Series vs Rangers

Unless… he hits like he did in Spring Training, where he hit .373 in 59 ABs, and nearly a quarter of his 22 hits were home runs (five). He scored 11 runs, while driving in nine, and pulling a 1.075 OPS through games of March 25.

Related: JD Davis Powers AA Corpus Christi Hooks, Clouding 3B Picture

But First, Let’s Help Davis Celebrate!

JD Davis, who, for some reason, answers to the nickname “Bubbles” in the clubhouse, worked hard during the offseason to increase his chances of earning that coveted Opening Day roster position.

Along with getting his weight down to 220 lbs (player bios can be found that list him at 225-235), the 6’3″ right-hander made adjustments to his swing that had a lot to do with his lower body and swing plane.

“I’ve been working on my hips the last year and a half,” Davis told Jake Kaplan of The Athletic this spring. “I struggled obviously in 2016 the first month or two, and then is when it really clicked to get in my back hip. I wasn’t really delivering my backside.”

In 2017, Davis added a bigger leg kick, and his hips were much more evident in improving his power production.

Though Davis started lifting the ball better with the new approach, he noticed something about the way pitchers were attacking him. Given his “natural leverage and uppercut swing,” he saw that pitchers were attacking the top of the zone.

“You got all these sabermetric analytics guys that start exposing some hitters and some windows that they can’t cover,” Davis said late last season. “My window was up top, and I was not getting the bat to the ball on the top of the zone.”

Related: Astros Uncovered: System Wide Power Focus “Enforced With All Hitters”

In the big leagues (in his 24 games in 2017, hitting .226, with four doubles and four homers), that was definitely the book on Davis. He spent 2016 (and four-fifths of 2017) at Houston’s AA Corpus Christi affiliate (hitting a combined .273), winding up last season at AAA Fresno (.295 in 61 ABs, with five doubles and five homers) prior to an early-August Houston call-up. Davis was not on any of Houston’s postseason rosters.

Davis continued to reveal secrets behind his improved stroke: “Me and [Houston’s assistant hitting coach] Jeff Albert had been talking about bat plane and swing plane. So, at the beginning of the year, he showed me video of me and [Astros shortstop Carlos] Correa side-by-side. My bat head would be tipped over my head, and that created such a loop in my swing that I couldn’t get to balls at the top of the zone or fastballs that were up in velocity.”

The challenge, now, for Davis is to keep the bat on his shoulder, then cock it behind his head so that he can be more direct to the ball. In fact, Davis arrived a week early to camp to try out his new pre-swing routine and reported immediate positive results after liking the way he felt pitted against the pitching machine ratcheted up to 100 mph.

“I’m a perfectionist,” Davis admitted to The Athletic. “So, I just try to do it [practice his new swing] every day, try to make sure I do it the right way,” he said of his work this spring. “That way, in the game, it comes natural to me.”

Out of Control Situation

JD Davis is in the unenviable position of starting the season on the 25-man roster with a handful of dominoes that have to fall in his favor in order for him to stay there for longer than a week… and not one of them is within his control.

Even if he keeps up his power numbers and near-.400 spring clip, Davis is facing any one of these possibilities, options, and difficult odds: