Michael Chavis comes to the Pirates with an intriguing resume. A former first round pick, the infielder impressed in his rookie season with the Red Sox, smacking 18 home runs in 382 plate appearances. But he’s failed to recapture the magic.
Last week, the Pirates acquired Chavis for left-handed reliever Austin Davis. It’s a good one-for-one trade, considering Davis gave up seven earned runs in 13.1 innings in Pittsburgh. Chavis, at least, has some upside.
He also boasts one of the best nicknames around. Introducing: Ice Horse.
The genesis of the moniker can be traced back to a late-night podcast session in April 2019. That’s when the team at Section 10, the popular Barstool Sports-produced Red Sox podcast, came up with the sobriquet. Just days into his big league career, Chavis hit a big home run that night, and the guys were trying to encapsulate his proclivity for clutch performances. So they started perusing through Chavis’ social media, and noticed he often posts about superstitious tropes, including the importance of making a wish on “11:11.”
After several minutes, one of them mentioned you can wish upon white horses, which seemed like a much more promising foundation for a nickname than calling Chavis “Make a Wish.” Then Jared Carrabis, the host of the show, threw out the name “Ice Horse.”
The rest is baseball history. Steve Perrault, the co-host of Section 10 and WEEI contributor, says Chavis immediately embraced his new title — though he’s not sure if he was just trying to satisfy Carrabis and Barstool.
“(The players) want to be looked at in a good light by the fans,” Perrault said. “So they understand if Jared comes to you with a nickname, you’re probably not going to say 'that sucks.' I could kind of tell he was going along with it, like, ‘Yeah, that’s great.’ If he actually liked it or not, I’ll never fully know, but I think he did. He embraced it with people who have signs, and I wore the horse mask to games.”
The peak of the Ice Horse happened about 10 days later, when the Red Sox visited the White Sox for a three-game set in early May. Chavis had a great series, batting .462 with 3 home runs. Perrault snuck his horse mask into one of the games, and received an on-air shoutout from Hall of Famer and beloved Red Sox analyst Dennis Eckersley.
“I couldn’t believe we came up with this stupid nickname at 1:30 in the morning on a Tuesday, and a week and a half later, Eckersley was saying it on the broadcast,” Perrault said. “That was the coolest.”
Chavis’ hot streak continued for eight games. During that span, he hit .433 with 4 home runs, 9 RBI and an incredible .1381 OPS. The Barstool Ice Horse shirts sold out, and naturally, the guys took all the credit for his success.
“We just felt like we hit it at the perfect time, because it was right before started to blow up and became a huge deal,” Perrault said. “Little did we know that was only going to be his real great stretch.”
Unfortunately, that two-week stretch in May 2019 was the pinnacle of Chavis’ Red Sox career. He slashed .204/.242/.364 in 2020 and 2021. But maybe changing cities will reinvigorate him. At the least, he should receive ample playing time in Pittsburgh.
Perrault hopes the Ice Horse tradition lives on.
“Embrace the Ice Horse mentality,” he said. “It just kind of sucks that’s how it ended it up, but for Pirates fans, just embrace the name and really be in his corner, because we want him to do well."