Colin Davis has quickly become a fan-favorite in Tacoma, after playing 27 games with the Rainiers in 2025, returning to Cheney Stadium in 2026. He was drafted by the Mariners in the seventh round of the 2021 MLB First-Year Player Draft. Davis spent his college career at Wofford, where he was a four-year starter. In his freshman year, he earned Southern Conference All-Freshman Team honors and was named Southern Conference Player of the Year as a senior in 2021. Looking back, he loved playing in the conference tournament every year. It is what you spend the entire season preparing for so “the juices are flowing” and everybody is locked in, ready to put everything on the line. Winning Player of the Year was a huge deal for Davis because he made it one of his goals before his senior season and winning it was reassuring that “hey, like you are a good ball player.”
Davis was born and raised in Roswell, Georgia and comes from a family full of athletes. His grandfather, Ted Davis, played nine seasons in the NFL, spending time with the Saints, Dolphins, and Colts along with his older brother Conor playing baseball at the college level and younger brother Ryan playing football collegiately. As long as Davis can remember, the three of them had a brotherly competition that pushed each other to improve everyday. “If Conor did something, I wanted to do it better. If Ryan saw me do something, Ryan wanted to do it better.” Their “competitive, brotherly love” drove each of them to perform at the highest level.
His grandfather played a huge part in he and his siblings’ development. They all “looked up” to what their grandfather did in his career and “strived to be like him on the field.” Davis explained that their grandfather was very hands-off when it came to coaching them. “He just sat in the bleachers” and would only give advice “when he saw something he did not like or moments where he could give some coaching or pointers.” Other than that, his grandfather let him and siblings do their own things and left the rest of the coaching to their parents.
The summer Davis was drafted, he was playing in the Cape Cod league on the Brewster Whitecaps and was teammates with future Los Angeles Angels shortstop, Zach Neto and future New York Yankees outfielder, Spencer Jones. He said that “it was the most fun he has had playing baseball.” Leading up to the draft, he remembers getting calls from his agent about the teams that had interest in him and about taking days off from playing during the draft. On the first day of the draft, Davis was sitting on the couch at his host family’s house watching and was “waiting to see what happens” since he was not expecting to be a first-round pick. After the first five rounds, he got hungry and decided to make a Dunkin Donuts run to grab a coffee and donut. When he got back, the seventh round had just started and 12 picks in, his agent called and told him “Hey man the Mariners are about to take you right here” and all Davis remembers is thinking “No way, this is crazy, are you serious?” The next minute the Mariners call him to tell him they’re picking him and are “excited to get working with him.” The only word Davis used to describe the feeling was “surreal.”
Davis went on a tear in May, hitting .327 with five home runs and 13 RBI over his final 15 games of the month. He explained that one of the keys to his recent success is getting into the right mindset and “knowing what makes me good.” Davis said that “the most common conversations I have with guys are about how mental this game is,” and that has helped him make the most of his opportunity. He also talked about how important it is to manage your mental health throughout the grind of a baseball season. Knowing that he is “putting in the work, taking care of my body, eating the right foods”, and doing everything he can control to improve everyday gives him peace.