White Sox rookie Duncan Davitt puts sports writing career on hold before big-league pitching debut

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Indianola Independent Advocate had the scoop on Duncan Davitt’s call-up to the White Sox.

One of the central Iowa newspaper’s owners got a tip straight from the source on Wednesday, hardly believed it — and soon broke down in tears, the 26-year-old pitcher reported.

Of course, publisher Amy Duncan couldn’t be closer to the story. Davitt’s her son, not to mention a sports columnist for the family-owned newspaper.

“My mom cried. She thought I was joking at first, which, I don’t what that’s about,” Davitt, the budding write-hander — er, right-hander — joked from the other side of the notebook Thursday in the visitors’ clubhouse at Kauffman Stadium

Royals games were a regular destination for Davitt while growing up some three hours away in Indianola, a city of about 16,000 in the Des Moines area. He covers prep sports there in the offseason for the paper owned and operated by his parents.

But Davitt himself was the story Thursday, arriving in Kansas City as a big-leaguer awaiting his major league debut.

“My chest didn’t start getting tight until I started walking in. It started settling in around them,” said Davitt, who was acquired by the Sox last summer in the Adrian Houser trade. “I walked out, took a look at the field from a little bit of a different perspective. It was kind of a whirlwind.”

The story’s not written yet on what Davitt, the Sox’ 30th-ranked prospect per MLB Pipeline, can bring to a beleaguered pitching staff whose 5.45 ERA was third-worst in baseball entering his first game on a big-league roster.

Davitt, who played at the University of Iowa before being drafted in the 18th round by the Rays in 2022, went 7-8 with a 4.38 ERA in 28 starts between Double- and Triple-A last year, striking out 150 and walking 45 in 152 innings. He gave up seven runs across two tough starts at Charlotte before getting the call, but he impressed at spring training.

“Good stuff. Really like the slider down and away to righties,” manager Will Venable said, who’s desperate for some length out of the bullpen. “He’s able to mix it up and get both sides of the plate out.”

Davitt, who had about three dozen relatives and friends holding their breath in attendance for his debut, said he’d simply follow Venable’s advice to “be ready to go. Come up here and get outs.”

“They really like the sweeper, so I’ve thrown that a little bit more often. We’ve kind of overhauled the changeup grip and the changeup has been fantastic to start the year so far down in Triple-A,” Davitt said.

When he’s not working on grips and mechanics, Davitt covers high school basketball for the Independent Advocate.

“I’m not in town enough to do a lot of football or baseball or anything like that. Done some volleyball. Volleyball is so cool, by the way. It’s awesome. Probably one of my favorite sports to cover,” he said.

Davitt has thought about a future media career, but “it’s not at the front of my mind at the moment.”

“It’s an option, I guess,” he told a pack of reporters definitively lacking such versatility.

“A lot of the time you get to see a lot of really good high school players that don’t always get as much attention as some big league guys. It’s fun to go see some of the up and coming people that are coming through small high schools in Iowa,” Davitt said.

Shortly before first pitch, the Independent Advocate published his first-person column on the call-up, written on his flight to Kansas City — nothing pre-written before the promotion.

“I was like, ‘I could write it, be ready for it.’ But also, if I write it, I’m going to jinx it and I’m not going to get up here,” Davitt said, respecting deadline superstitions like any seasoned journalist. “So I figured I’d maybe hold off until I was in the emotions and could write something that’s a little bit more from the heart.”