J.D. Davis told reporters today that most of his reps early in camp have been in left field, and only began taking ground balls at third base on Tuesday.

The team has also started conversations about the possibility of Davis serving as an occasional designated hitter, but no concrete plans have been finalized at this point.

The breakdown of Davis’ outfield-to-infield-reps ratio over the past week seems to align with the time he spent at both positions in 2019.

After making just three of 39 total starts in the outfield with the Houston Astros from 2017-2018, Davis was penciled into left field for almost 75 percent of his starts a year ago.

The more important takeaway is the raw number of starts: those 39 over his first two major league seasons compared to 98 with the Mets.

“I was always confident in myself, I just needed more reps to get in there,” Davis said. “Once I’ve had success, it’s kind of like basketball, where a shooter – all he needs is to see the ball go in the hoop and he gets back on track. I think that’s me in the long term. I just needed to get some reps and success.”

It’s still early, and the opportunity is there for him to spend more time at third base, but this layout lends itself to the belief that Davis will be in left and Jeff McNeil will be at third come Opening Day.

Publicly available defensive metrics relay that while both players were better on dirt than grass, Davis heavily struggled in the outfield. His -7 outs above average was 27th among 39 qualifiers at the position.

Davis produced a +1 OAA mark in less time at third base, and he continues to work with infield coach Gary Disarcina on drills not dissimilar to the ones Pete Alonso has used to improve his defensive skills.

Among other items on the agenda, Davis offered his thoughts on the health and safety situation.

“Coming back [to New York], it’s definitely demoralizing,” Davis said after returning from his home in California. “I have hope in the situation. I think we’ll turn the corner and get back to normalcy.

“It’s definitely different. It doesn’t really feel like New York. New York is very special to me, it’s special to this team. We’re all doing our part and if we keep doing that we’ll get back to normalcy as quickly as possible.”