Badly in need of left-handed hitting first basemen, the Rangers signed Ike Davis to a minor league deal yesterday. You may recall his dad, Ron Davis, who was a pretty good relief pitcher in the late 70s and early 80s with the Yankees and Twins, and an All-Star in 1981.

The son bolted out of the gate with the Mets in 2010 looking like he had a promising big league career ahead of him, too, finishing seventh in the NL Rookie of the Year voting. Since then, though, he has sort of fizzled out in a mostly uneven career.

He hit .302 with an OPS of .925 in an injury-shortened 2011 and followed that up in 2012 with a season that looked like he was on his way to stardom, with thirty-two home runs and ninety RBIs.

But that road to stardom took a detour down mediocre street. The Mets got tired of waiting for 2012 to show back up, and sent him to the Pirates in 2014. He was with the Athletics in 2015.

Davis would be pretty much more of the same in the Rangers lineup. A left-handed hitter who hits righties with a bit of success (.251/69 HRs/234 RBIs) and doesn’t even bother to bring a bat to the plate against lefties (.197/12/47).

At this point in his career, the best Ike Davis can hope to be is minor league depth with a chance to fill in at the major league level in case of an injury.