The Rays are bringing back a member of their late-season relief corps, announcing Tuesday that they’ve re-signed veteran righty Chris Devenski to a one-year contract with a club option for the 2025 season. Devenski will reportedly be guaranteed $1.1MM in the form of a $1MM salary and $100K buyout on a $2MM option. There are incentives baked into each year of the contract, which also contains escalators in 2024 that can boost the base value of the option.
The deal marks a reunion between the two parties, as Devenski closed out the 2023 season on Tampa Bay’s big league roster after signing a Major League contract in late August. Devenski spent the bulk of the season in the Angels’ bullpen, pitching to a 5.08 ERA with more encouraging secondary marks (23.6% strikeout rate, 6.4% walk rate, 46.3% grounder rate).
As has been the case so many times in the past, a match with the Rays helped him unlock better results. It’s admittedly a small sample, but Devenski yielded just two runs on five hits and two walks with nine strikeouts in 8 2/3 frames following the change of scenery. With Tampa Bay, he leaned on his longtime plus changeup even harder, throwing it at a career-high 56.5% clip.
Early in his career, Devenski was an absolute powerhouse with the Astros, pitching to a 2.38 ERA with a 28.2% strikeout rate and 6.4% walk rate in 189 innings over the life of 110 appearances (five starts, 105 relief outings) from 2016-17. Devenski’s numbers backed up in 2018-19 as he became extremely susceptible to home runs (1.71 HR/9) and also battled a hamstring injury. Elbow soreness wiped out the majority of the already-shortened 2020 season for him, and Devenski underwent Tommy John surgery in 2021. He struggled mightily through 14 2/3 innings between the D-backs and Phillies in his 2022 return.
This past season was Devenski’s first year with at least 15 big league frames since 2019. His 94 mph average fastball was right in line with peak levels, and he posted better-than-average swinging-strike and opponents’ chase rates (13% and 33.3%, respectively). He’ll give the Rays a low-cost bullpen flier for as many as two seasons.
Devenski joins a deep Rays bullpen mix that also includes Pete Fairbanks, Jason Adam, Andrew Kittredge, Colin Poche, Kevin Kelly, Shawn Armstrong, Garrett Cleavinger and waiver claim Tyler Alexander. Righties Colby White and Manuel Rodriguez are all on the 40-man roster, too, though each has minor league options remaining. Most of the relievers in the Tampa Bay bullpen are far from household names, as is common for the Rays, but every name listed (minus Alexander, White and Rodriguez) had an ERA of 3.09 or better in the majors this past season.
ESPN’s Jeff Passan first reported the agreement and length of the deal. Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times reported the financial terms.
He’ll be lucky to make the roster
yall would say that about a pitcher with like 4 WAR like “ah man, no room for this scrub”
4 WAR for his career genius, 0.2 War last year. Guy threw 8 innings last year. He will be lucky to make the roster.
8 innings for the Rays, I read the article & he was with the Angels earlier in the year.
@just lol. 3.6 career WAR. The chances this guy stays the same during his time with the Rays at the end of last year is pretty slim. Only thing I can say is that its probably a league minimum deal, or close to it. Anything more than that is a serious overpay, which is something the Rays usually don’t do.
sigh. you didn’t get the joke lol. i wasn’t talking about him specifically, i was saying the rays often don’t have room for very good players because they’re so good at what they do. so the joke was, they could have a 4 WAR player (any player) and still be like, eh, he doesn’t fit.
i’ll try harder next time when complimenting your team @tom the ray fan
If you’re a Rays fan you’ll understand that he’s signing a guaranteed contract. The Rays don’t throw money away. He’ll make the team.
Just sayin’, anytime any team wants to make a trade or sign a free agent feel free.
The Stove is percolating to a boil now!
Always great seeing someone work hard and get rewarded. Not a bad outcome after having signed a minor league deal last year.
neither, give me chandler
Test
I’d rather have Bob Stevenson than this guy. He was elite last year and he walked for nothing.
Oh come on, Adams. You NEVER put a comma before “too.” It’s not the fifties anymore.