1:17pm: The Pirates optioned Hunter Barco to clear an active roster spot, per Colin Beazley of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. They still need to open a 40-man spot.
1:06pm: The Pirates are selecting the contract of veteran right-hander Chris Devenski from Triple-A Indianapolis, reports Alex Stumpf. They’ll need to make a corresponding roster move prior to first pitch (about four and a half hours from now). Ethan Hullihen reports that Devenski had an upward mobility clause in his contract, which means the Bucs would’ve had to either add him to the 40-man roster or allow him to go to another club willing to put him on its own major league roster.
The 35-year-old Devenski signed a minor league deal with the Bucs back in January. He’s logged big league time in each of the past 10 seasons. In 2016-17, Devenski was a dominant force out of the Houston bullpen, combining for 189 innings of 2.38 ERA ball with a 28.2% strikeout rate against a 6.4% walk rate. He’s never recaptured that form, however, and has bounced around the league journeyman style for the past several seasons.
Since Opening Day 2018, Devenski has pitched 227 2/3 frames in the majors and logged a 5.18 earned run average — a far cry from his outstanding first two seasons. Along the way, he’s pitched not only for the Astros but also the D-backs, Phillies, Rays, Angels and most recently the Mets. Devenski tossed 16 1/3 frames for New York last season and held opponents to a 2.16 ERA with a 21.5% strikeout rate and 7.7% walk rate. That was his first season with a major league ERA under 4.46 since 2018.
Devenski has had a strong start to his season down in Indy. He’s pitched 10 2/3 innings out of the bullpen and held opponents to just one earned run on five hits and a pair of walks with 15 punchouts. That comes out to a huge 38.5% strikeout rate against a tiny 5.1% walk rate. That lofty strikeout rate is supported by excellent swinging-strike and opponents’ chase rates (17.2% and 41.8%, respectively). Devenski’s 92.7 mph average fastball is a ways from its 94.7 mph peak but still higher than last year’s 91.9 mph average from Triple-A (and 92.4 mph in the majors).
Devenski has seven-plus years of big league service, so the Pirates aren’t able to option him without his consent. Hullihen suggests that Devenski will likely be amenable to that setup if the team chooses. Given his strong performance in Indianapolis, however, there’s a chance he’ll simply be given an opportunity to carve out a role in a Pirates bullpen that still has some spots up for grabs.
WHY????
Bob Nutting hates you, and it’s personal.
Relief pitchers are burned up
RELEASE THE DRAGON
Marcell Mendoza looking as awful as they knew McCutchen would,be. Usually the Pirates dont fall out of it until June or July, but this year they decided to do the fans a solid by being transparent and cashing it in by Mothers Day so they can plan the rest of the summer accordingly.
Do you mean Ozuna?
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mendoza_Line
I’m sure he’s referring to Ozuna’s batting average.
The shame of it is that I was a better hitter than Ozuna has been this year.
Slider crafted one of his wittier trollisms.
I get a kick out of reading your comments, Slider, because you never have anything positive to say about anything
Were you mistreated as a child?
Mistreated by the Pirates his entire childhood & now as an adult.
They were fine in my childhood but not so much since.
Make this all caps and it could be a DJT tweet lol.
I always get excited hearing about this guy because he punched himself in the face once and then I remember that was Ken Giles.
Astros legend!
I had high hopes for Barco but clearly, he’s out of his depths here
agreed
Barco is out of his element in the majors which is a shame considering he was such a good prospect
He has been misused.He did fine last year but he is a starter pure and simple.They need to let him start in AAA for a couple of months and not yo-yo him up and down.
These young pitchers need time to mature.He pitched very well in the minors last year but he needs more time before he can be a full time starter in the MLs.
Yes. If the idea is that he’ll eventually be a starter then let him learn and improve at Indy.
And of course he’s been misused. Really, Kelly has shown little idea of how to use a pen thus far
That first game loss against this team set a bad tone for
Maybe? It’s not like Barco or Sanders have looked very good. For what it’s worth, they tend to have a short leash with the low end on the totem pole pitchers so if he’s bad, they will move on promptly.
Barco is not bad.
The Pirates are just stupid in how they have used and promoted him.
A+ selection
Devenski may be able to flourish because the way that your buddy Kelly pulls pitchers Devenski’s arm may fall off by the end of this year.
I think that this was a good move and he deserves a chance.
Urquidy is pitching better in AAA and may be up for the next injury.
I think that this is just plain stupid.
If a ML pitcher wants to hit a guy he will easily be able to do so.