The Rays delivered the right hand Chris Devenski after picking him up last week, according to the team’s log on MLB.com. He is now a free agent.
Any team can now sign Devenski to a major league or minor league deal. The new club will only be responsible for the minor league split for any time spent on the major league/injured list. That number will be subtracted from what the Rays owe him, but Tampa Bay is still on the hook for most of the rest of his $1.1MM salary.
Devenski, 33, joined the Rays late in the 2023 season after being cut by the Angels and pitched 8 2/3 innings, holding opponents to two runs on five hits, two walks and nine strikeouts. He added two more shutout innings (one allowed) during the postseason. The Rays re-signed him to a major league deal over the winter, but Devenski hasn’t replicated that small sample size success this time around.
In 2024, Devenski pitched 26 2/3 innings in 19 appearances out of the bullpen, producing a dismal 6.75 ERA with a below-average 19.7% strikeout weighted average. 11.5%. He’s also been incredibly homer prone, giving up nine long balls in his short stint – a 3.04 homer average per nine innings pitched.
Early in his career, Devenski was a powerhouse reliever for the Astros, pitching to a 2.38 ERA in 189 innings of relief from 2016-17 and striking out 28.2% of opponents against a 6.4% walk rate. His results have taken a significant step back since then, due to injuries. Most notably, Devenski underwent Tommy John surgery in 2021, limiting him to 7 1/3 innings that season and just 33 2/3 innings the following season.
Devenski’s bread and butter has long been a changeup that helps him slow left-handed opponents. It gave him the back-to-back splits of his entire career, and that came in the 2024 season. He is hitting .211/.262/.439 in 61 plate appearances this season. In the same amount of plate appearances, however, the righties burned him with a .314/.426/.745 batting line.
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