CHICAGO -- Perhaps the most exciting story of the 2018 season was Shohei Ohtani becoming baseball's first true two-way star since Babe Ruth.
More than anything, Ohtani proved that it is possible to succeed as both a hitter and a pitcher en route to winning American League Rookie of the Year.
White Sox third baseman Matt Davidson took notice.
The 27-year-old, who had three scoreless outings of emergency relief last season, will begin throwing in a couple of weeks to prepare for adding "occasional relief pitcher" to a White Sox resume already including third baseman, first baseman and designated hitter with 46 home runs over the last two seasons.
"We'll see what happens, depending on what happens this offseason and going into Spring Training," Davidson told MLB.com's Chad Thornburg during Davidson's charity event last Tuesday. "I think Spring Training will probably be a little bit more of a sign. If I do get some innings during Spring Training, then I think it might be a little more real. But if it doesn't, then that will be it, you know."
Davidson was speaking from Yucaipa High School, where he played when selected 35th overall by the D-backs in the 2009 Draft. He last pitched regularly in '09 for Yucaipa, almost exclusively pitching during his time there, but adding in a little third base as a senior.
A three-home run effort on Opening Day at Kauffman Stadium and a Labor Day walk-off blast against Detroit closer Shane Greene earned Davidson his greatest 2018 recognition. In terms of fulfilling a personal dream, it was a trio of scoreless outings against the Rangers, Blue Jays and Yankees meaning the most to Davidson.
Featuring a fastball topping out in the low 90s and mixing in offspeed offerings, Davidson looked much better than the typical position player in mop-up duty. He struck out two, including the Yankees Giancarlo Stanton, walked one and yielded one Aaron Hicks single over three innings.

Whether Davidson's extra pitching work results in any mound appearances in 2019 is uncertain. The White Sox have not guaranteed any innings to Davidson, even during Spring Training, a point reinforced by White Sox general manager Rick Hahn at the recently completed General Managers Meetings with Hahn stressing Davidson's focus is on his offense.
Davidson's desire for double duty is part of a trend that is gaining steam across the sport, as 2018 saw more pitching appearances by position players than any season in baseball history. A year before Ohtani, the Padres attempted to use catcher Christian Bethancourt as a backup catcher/outfielder and occasional reliever, which is more in line with the role Davidson envisions, though Bethancourt -- who came up as a catcher -- struggled on the mound and was demoted to Triple-A after just four pitching appearances in April '17. Meanwhile, the Rays took pitcher/first baseman Brendan McKay with the No. 4 overall pick in the '17 Draft. He hit .214/.368/.359 across three levels this year, while posting a 2.41 ERA with 103 strikeouts in 78 1/3 innings.
Although the White Sox aren't going to step on Davidson's dream, they didn't use him in even low-leverage situations during September, which might give a hint at their 2019 plans for him. And part of that has to do with the realities of pitching.
Significant soreness arose for Davidson after his third and final appearance on Aug. 6, so building up arm strength and getting better prepared in the offseason is essential. It's still no guarantee, but he'll be ready if so.
"I'm doing the same stuff," Davidson said. "I'm getting prepared to not pitch almost, like what I usually do, and just adding a throwing program and probably a little more cardio and obviously some pitching mechanic work.
"To be honest, that's the first thing I wanted to do as a Major League Baseball player was to pitch. And then hitting kind of just took off and took it from there, but that opportunity kind of arose this year and we're just kind of going with it, and I'm really grateful to have that and we'll see what comes of it."