Diamondbacks To Sign Chris Devenski
8:28am: Devenski’s contract is a minor league deal, tweets Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic. The right-hander would earn a $1MM salary in the Majors with the opportunity to pick up an additional $350K via incentives for appearances and games finished.
7:34am: The Diamondbacks have agreed to a deal with right-handed reliever Chris Devenski, tweets Mark Feinsand of MLB.com. The ALIGND Sports client underwent arthroscopic elbow surgery in September and elected free agency after clearing waivers in October.
Devenski, 30, has spent his entire Major League career to date with the Astros organization. Originally a 25th-round pick of the White Sox back in 2011, he found himself traded to Houston just 14 months after the draft, as part of the deal sending Brett Myers to Chicago.
It wasn’t that long ago that Devenski looked to be an emerging bullpen weapon for the ‘Stros. “Devo” finished fourth in American League Rookie of the Year voting back in 2016 after racking up 108 1/3 innings of 2.16 ERA ball with a 3.23 SIERA, a 25.5 percent strikeout rate and a minuscule 4.9 percent walk rate. He was similarly effective in 2017, tossing 80 2/3 frames with a 2.68 ERA/2.99 SIERA and what still stands as a career-best 31.6 percent strikeout mark.
Devenski took a step back in 2018-20, however. Although his strikeout and walk numbers remained generally solid, he began giving up hard contact at increasing rates and became exceptionally homer-prone, averaging 1.73 long balls surrendered per nine frames in that time. Statcast measured his 2016-17 hard-hit rate at just 26.7 percent, but his 2018-19 mark jumped all the way to 35.2 percent.
Prior to this past September’s elbow surgery, Devenski threw just 3 2/3 innings, having spent the rest of the year on the injured list. In that small sample of work, his once-94.8 mph average fastball had dipped to 92.9 mph.
There’s plenty of upside for the D-backs in signing Devenski, who’ll add an experienced arm to a largely untested group of Arizona relievers. In terms of service time, right-hander Yoan Lopez (2.011) is the most experienced reliever on the Diamondbacks’ 40-man roster. Arizona also added veteran southpaw Ryan Buchter on a minor league contract just yesterday, and it stands to reason that GM Mike Hazen and his staff will continue to hunt for affordable bullpen help in the weeks ahead.
Roberto Osuna, Chris Devenski, Dustin Garneau, Chase De Jong Elect Free Agency
Astros Roberto Osuna, Chris Devenski, Dustin Garneau and Chase De Jong have elected free agency after clearing waivers, Jake Kaplan of The Athletic reports.
The most notable addition to the open market here is Osuna, whom the Astros outrighted earlier this week. Osuna has been excellent since he debuted with the Blue Jays in 2015, but he’s forever marred because of a domestic violence suspension in 2018. The Astros still traded for him that year, however, and they did benefit from his on-the-mound presence after that. But the 25-year-old’s future is now uncertain because of a right elbow injury that cost him almost all of 2020 and could force him to undergo Tommy John surgery.
The righty Devenski was a lights-out bullpen workhorse for the Astros in his first two seasons, including during their World Series-winning year in 2017, but the 29-year-old has since fallen on hard times. Not only has Devenski’s production taken a severe turn for the worse, but he threw only 3 2/3 innings in 2020 and is just over a month removed from undergoing arthroscopic surgery on his right elbow. He’s not expected to recover from that procedure until sometime in the winter.
The well-traveled Garneau, 33, signed with the Astros last winter and ended up seeing time as their backup catcher. Garneau hit a meager .158/.273/.289 with one home run in 46 plate appearances, though.
De Jong began the year in independent ball before the Astros acquired him from the Sugarland Skeeters on Aug. 3. That move didn’t prove successful for Houston, as the right-handed De Jong went on to allow a whopping 12 earned runs in 7 1/3 innings.
Chris Devenski Undergoes Elbow Surgery
Astros right-hander Chris Devenski underwent arthroscopic surgery to remove a bone spur from his right elbow yesterday, the team announced Wednesday. The recovery time on the procedure is expected to be about four months.
Devenski, 29, has struggled over the past few seasons, but from 2016-17, “The Dragon” was a major piece of Houston’s bullpen. In that time, he worked a combined 189 innings with a 2.38 ERA, 9.7 K/9, 2.2 BB/9, 0.71 HR/9 and a 35.9 percent ground-ball rate. He posted a swinging-strike rate better than 15 percent over that two-year stretch, including a gaudy 16.9 percent in a 2017 campaign that saw him punch out 31.6 percent of the hitters he faced.
Since Opening Day 2018, however, Devenski has a 4.88 ERA in 120 frames. He’s still averaging 9.6 strikeouts per nine innings pitched in that time, but his walk rate has ticked up slightly, his velocity has dipped, and he’s become vastly more prone to home runs (1.73 HR/9). Devenski managed just 3 2/3 innings in 2020 and was tagged for six runs on seven hits and three walks in that brief sample.
Heading into the offseason, Devenski will be at somewhat of a crossroads. His $2MM salary in 2020 was hardly outrageous, and his limited body of work this year means he’s unlikely to receive much of a raise — if any at all. Still, every club will be looking to trim some payroll where possible (to varying extents). Devenski’s late elbow procedure and his downward trend in 2018-20 will make him a non-tender candidate, particularly given that he’s only controllable through the 2021 season right now at present anyhow.
Alex Bregman Nearing Return; Astros Place Taylor, Devenski On IL
The Astros are likely to activate star third baseman Alex Bregman from the injured list on Tuesday, manager Dusty Baker told Jake Kaplan of The Athletic and other reporters.
Houston has gone without Bregman since he suffered a strained right hamstring on Aug. 19, temporarily depriving the club of one of baseball’s greatest talents. Bregman’s production has dipped a bit compared to the previous couple seasons, but his output has still been outstanding this season. The 26-year-old slashed .272/.374/.500 (139 wRC+) with four home runs in 107 plate appearances before hitting the IL. The Astros have since turned to Abraham Toro, Jack Mayfield and Aledmys Diaz at the hot corner, but those three have registered terrible numbers this season. Plus, having dropped four straight to fall to 21-19, the Astros as a whole have slumped of late, so they’ll be all the more pleased to welcome Bregman back.
Meantime, the news isn’t nearly as positive for Houston’s pitching staff, which lost left-hander Blake Taylor and righty Chris Devenski to the IL with elbow problems on Monday, Chandler Rome of the Houston Chronicle tweets. The Astros will use righties Chase De Jong and Humberto Castellanos to take their open roster spots.
The rookie Taylor, 25, has been a bright spot for an Astros relief corps that has dealt with injuries to the likes of Roberto Osuna and Brad Peacock, among others. In his first 17 major league frames, Taylor has posted a 2.12 ERA/4.09 FIP with 7.94 K/9 and a 51.1 percent groundball rate, though he has walked 5.82 batters per nine. Devenski, formerly a key cog for Houston’s bullpen, has been battling elbow issues throughout the season. He made two appearances in July, missed all of August and then totaled another two appearances this month (on Sept. 5 and 6), in which he combined for 1 2/3 innings of three-run ball, before going back to the IL.
Astros Place Chris Devenski On Injured List, Select Carlos Sanabria
The Astros have placed pitcher Chris Devenski on the injured list, retroactive to July 29th, per Mark Berman of Fox 26 (via Twitter). To replace him on the roster, Houston selected the contract of Carlos Sanabria.
As with many clubs around the game, consistently fielding a competent pitching staff is going to be bit of a whirlwind this season. Devenski has been a cog in their bullpen for the past four seasons, though a 4.56 ERA/4.57 marks an underwhelming last couple of seasons. Still, the Astros are working a lot of young arms into the mix this season, and Devenski’s veteran presence could help stabilize the relief corps.
For now, however, they’ll look elsewhere. Ryan Pressly continues to be held out of action, though he’s very close to being game-ready, per Brian McTaggart of MLB.com. Pressly figures to be a significant presence in the back end of the bullpen, especially with Will Harris now in Washington.
McTaggart also notes that Forrest Whitley has been dealing with some arm soreness. Despite a difficult season in 2019, Whitley will almost surely make his debut this year since there’s no Triple-A season. Still, he’ll have to get healthy first.
Sanabria, 23, will make his major-league debut should he get into a game. The 6’3″ right-hander pitched only as high as Double-A in 2019, making 37 appearances with a 3.11 ERA despite 5.9 BB/9. He’s a live-armed pitcher with some promise if he can get his command right. Fangraphs has him as the Astros’ 22nd ranked prospect.
Latest On Astros’ Bullpen
The Astros are off to a nice 3-1 start to the 2020 season, but the reigning American League champions are nonetheless facing plenty of injury-related issues at the moment. Ace and defending AL Cy Young winner Justin Verlander is on the shelf with a forearm strain, 2019 AL Rookie of the Year Yordan Alvarez has been out for weeks and it’s unclear when he’ll debut this season, and the club has a handful of notable relievers battling arm troubles.
The Astros’ best setup man, Ryan Pressly, is now among the team’s wounded, as Brian McTaggart of MLB.com was among those to report that he’s fighting elbow soreness. Chris Devenski is dealing with the same malady, while another of the Astros’ righties – Austin Pruitt – has been shut down on account of his own elbow woes.
The 31-year-old Pressly was largely lights-out with the Twins and Astros from 2018-19, but injuries have slowed him dating back to late last season. Pressly underwent knee surgery in August, and while he did return to throw four innings of scoreless, one-hit ball with seven strikeouts and one walk at the end of September, he experienced more discomfort during the playoffs and was shellacked for 12 hits and seven earned runs in 5 2/3 October frames. Pressly still hasn’t pitched this year, though the severity of his newest injury isn’t known right now.
Devenski, who was subpar from 2018-19 after back-to-back terrific campaigns, has already taken the mound twice this season. The first of those showings went well, but he was the losing pitcher Sunday after giving up three earned runs in an inning of work. Pruitt, meantime, continues to await his Astros and 2020 debuts. They acquired the swingman from the Rays over the winter, but arm injuries – first to his shoulder – have weighed him down.
If Pressly and Devenski join Pruitt and the also-injured Brad Peacock in missing time, it will leave Houston with no established relievers aside from closer Roberto Osuna and fellow veteran Joe Biagini. As McTaggart points out, the Astros have a whopping eight rookies in their bullpen.
Players Avoiding Arbitration: American League
Entering the day, there were more than 150 players on the clock to exchange arbitration figures with their respective teams prior to a noon ET deadline. As one would expect, there’ll be an utter landslide of arbitration agreements in advance of that deadline. We already ran through some key facts and reminders on the arbitration process earlier this morning for those who are unfamiliar or simply need a refresher on one of MLB’s most complex idiosyncrasies, which will hopefully clear up many questions readers might have.
We’ll track the majority of the American League’s settlements in this post and split off a separate one for NL settlements as well. Note that all projections referenced come courtesy of MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz:
- Newly acquired Angels righty Dylan Bundy receives a $5MM salary, per Jon Heyman of MLB Network (Twitter links). He had projected at a $5.7MM price tag. Teammate Hansel Robles gets $3.85MM, per Heyman, just shy of his $4MM projection.
- The Yankees have worked out deals with all of their eligible players. The team has a hefty $8.5MM pact with Aaron Judge, per MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand (via Twitter). Backstop Gary Sanchez settled for $5MM, per Feinsand (via Twitter). The New York org will pay righty Luis Cessa $895K and Jonathan Holder $750K, Murray reports (Twitter links). Fellow reliever Tommy Kahnle will earn $2.65MM, per Jon Heyman of MLB Network (via Twitter). And star lefty James Paxton has settled at $12.5MM, Heyman adds via Twitter. Chad Green and Jordan Montgomery have also agreed to terms, the former at $1.275MM and the latter at $805K, per Heyman (Twitter links).
- The Twins announced that they struck deals with Trevor May, Taylor Rogers, Eddie Rosario and Byron Buxton. Jon Heyman of MLB Network followed up with salary terms (all links to Twitter). May earns $2,205,000; Rogers takes home $4.45MM; Rosario lands at $7.75MM; and Buxton receives $3.075MM. While the first and last of those land rather close to the projected amount, Rogers got $550K more and Rosario got $1.15MM less than the calculators predicted.
- Shortstop Carlos Correa settled with the Astros for $8MM, per MLB.com’s Brian McTaggart (via Twitter). Righty Brad Peacock lands at a $3.9MM salary, per Chandler Rome of the Houston Chronicle (Twitter link). The former went for more than his $7.4MM projection, while the latter ended up shy of the $4.6MM mark produced by the computers. The ‘Stros also have agreed with closer Roberto Osuna as well, per an announcement. It’s a $10MM deal, slotting in just $200K shy of his projection, per Rome (via Twitter).
- The Orioles have a deal with outfielder/first baseman Trey Mancini, Roch Kubatko of MASNsports.com tweets. It’s for $4.75MM, per Dan Connolly of The Athletic (via Twitter), well south of the $5.7MM projection.
- Outfielder Jorge Soler has agreed to a $7.3MM deal with the Royals, MLB.com’s Jeffrey Flanagan tweets. That’s well off of the $11.2MM that MLBTR’s model projected, though it is likely that the cause of the gulf lies in the interpretation of the correct baseline to start from in building Soler’s salary. He’s in the 4+ service class but had been playing on the original deal he signed out of Cuba.
- The Tigers have a deal in place with southpaw Matthew Boyd, per Anthony Fenech of the Detroit Free Press (via Twitter). It’ll pay him $5.3MM, per Chris McCosky of the Detroit News (Twitter link). That falls comfortably below the $6.4MM, suggesting that Boyd’s camp was concerned with the way his suboptimal ERA would play in the arb process. Fellow lefty starter Daniel Norris will earn $2.96MM, McCosky tweets.
Earlier Settlements
Astros Select Kent Emanuel, Decline Option Over Chris Devenski
The Astros announced today that they have selected the contract of lefty Kent Emanuel. That move will prevent him from reaching minor-league free agency.
The Houston organization also declined a $2.825MM club option over righty Chris Devenski. But that does not mean he’ll necessarily be lost to the open market. Devenski remains eligible for arbitration and projects to earn $2.0MM through that process.
Set to turn 29 later this month, Devenski’s not far removed from a tremendous run in Houston’s bullpen. He looked like an elite reliever at times from 2017-18, the first of which was a championship season for the Astros, but has come to earth over the past two years. Devenski’s now coming off a season in which he logged a pedestrian 4.83 ERA/4.62 FIP with 9.39 K/9, 2.74 BB/9 and a 32.7 percent groundball rate over 69 innings. He then wasn’t much of a factor in the Astros’ run to a World Series berth, as they left him off their ALDS and ALCS rosters. While Devenski did pitch in the team’s World Series loss to Washington, he allowed three earned runs in as many innings.
Emanuel, 27, is a former North Carolina Tar Heel who joined the Astros as a third-round pick back in 2013. The left-hander has grades as one of Baseball America’s top 30 Astros prospects on multiple occasions in the past, though he hasn’t gotten to the bigs yet. Emmanuel is on the heels of his best Triple-A campaign, however, as he notched a 3.90 ERA/4.09 FIP with 7.17 K/9, 2.04 BB/9 and a terrific 57 percent grounder rate over 101 2/3 innings.
Astros Avoid Arbitration With Chris Devenski
The Astros and reliever Chris Devenski have settled on a $1.525MM salary for the 2019 season, reports Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic. Per Rosenthal, the deal also includes a club option for $2.625MM in 2020, which can increase to $2.725MM if the righty appears in 50 or more games in 2019. The salary will increase to $2.825MM if he appears in 60 games, and $2.925MM if Devenski, represented by MVP Sports Group, makes 68 appearances.
Devenski had originally asked for $1.65MM in his first arbitration-eligible season, with the club filing at $1.4MM.
The 28-year-old Devenski broke out in 2016, posting an absurdly high (for a reliever) 2.8 fWAR in just 48 appearances. His once-dominant changeup, though, has become far more hittable of late – AL hitters teed off on the righty last season, smashing nine homers in just 47.1 IP and making hard contact nearly 34% of the time. Devenski did continue to strike batters out, whiffing 9.7 men per nine after a career high of 11.6 K/9 in 2017.
He’ll likely fill a long role in a deep Astro bullpen that includes stalwarts Roberto Osuna, Ryan Pressly, Hector Rondon, and Will Harris, with the Houston analytic team surely on the prowl for ways in which the unorthodox righty can keep more balls on the ground.
Astros File Arbitration Figures For Carlos Correa, Chris Devenski
The Houston Astros submitted their arbitration bids yesterday after signing fellow arb-eligibles Lance McCullers Jr., Will Harris and Brad Peacock to one-year deals. Houston failed to reach agreements with shortstop Carlos Correa, starter Gerrit Cole and swingman Chris Devenski. All three, at least for the time being, will head towards arbitration hearings to determine their 2019 salaries.
Correa is coming off a bit of a down year, while injuries have kept him to no more than 110 games in each of the last two seasons. He filed for a $5MM salary for 2019, while the Astros countered at $4.25MM. MLBTR projected a $4.625MM contract for Correa in this, his first year of arbitration. Both sides are surely hoping for a healthy bounceback campaign from Correa, a core piece of their championship winning club of 2017 who struggled to the tune of .239/.323/.405 last season. Of course, most clubs would be pretty thrilled to get a 101 wRC+ from a 23-year-old shortstop.
Devenski, meanwhile, filed for $1.65MM, with Houston countering at $1.4MM – the same number MLBTR projected for the righty. Devenski has primarily come out of the pen for Houston, pitching to a 2.74 ERA over his three major-league seasons. Last year was the worst campaign of Devenski’s three in the majors, though he was still serviceable in 47 1/3 innings, which included one start (4.18 ERA, 4.49 FIP, 4.01 xFIP). Like Correa, Devenski has two further seasons of arbitration eligibility before hitting free agency after 2021.
As reported yesterday, Cole filed at $13.5MM, while the Astros countered at $11.425MM. The rather large difference of $2.075MM is understandable given this will be Cole’s last time through arbitration before hitting free agency. He had a stellar 2018 in his first year with the Astros, 15-5 with a 2.88 ERA and 12.4 K/9, a rather ridiculous number across 200 1/3 innings. No doubt it was a tremendous season, good for 5.3 rWAR, a far cry better than the 2.3 rWAR he accrued per season in Pittsburgh, which definitely complicates the valuation process for all parties.
There is, of course, still time for Houston to forego arbitration with Correa/Cole/Devenski, though the common “file and trial” practice means teams typically stop negotiating one-year deals at this juncture. It is not uncommon for parties to negotiate long-term deals during this period.
Arbitration figures for Correa and Devenski was first posted by USA Today’s Bob Nightengale (Twitter links). Cole’s figures were reported yesterday by Fancred’s Jon Heyman (via Twitter).