The Diamondbacks selected reliever Chris Devenski onto the major league roster shortly before tonight’s game against the Giants. Keynan Middleton was placed on the 15-day injured list with a right ankle strain. Arizona already had a vacancy on the 40-man roster.
If he gets into a game, it’ll be the first big league action of the year for the right-hander. Devesnki has spent much of the season on the minor league injured list recovering from a Tommy John procedure he underwent last June, but he’s returned lately to make six appearances for Triple-A Reno. He’s allowed six runs in 7 1/3 frames, largely thanks to a trio of longballs surrendered, but he’s punched out nine against just two walks.
Devenski made eight appearances with the Snakes before suffering the elbow injury. Before last season, the Cal State Fullerton product had spent his entire MLB career with the Astros. He debuted as an excellent multi-inning weapon, working 189 innings of 2.38 ERA ball through his first two seasons. The past few years have been a struggle, however, as he has a 5.09 mark across 127 1/3 frames going back to the start of the 2018 campaign.
Remember when this dude was the next big thing because he threw to more than 3 batters a little more frequently than most guys did?
Huge cheat code for Roto players for a couple years with the Sp tags. He was a RotoWizard
Wonder what happened to Devenski. Looked like a potential long term building block for the Astros bullpen, made the 2017 all-star game, then fell off a cliff.
Crack down on sticky stuff. He was one of the early victims. In those early days the movement on his pitches was not normal.
MLB wasn’t checking for foreign substances back in 2018. Heck, he gained spin on his pitches up through 2019. His fastball averaged 2369 RPM in ’19, over 100 more RPM than in 2016. It wasn’t until 2021 he really took a big dip in spin rate.
You were so confident in that answer.
Thinking same thing. Cubs had a guy in Hector Rondon who was similarily really good for a couple of years and then slowly got worse until he was in the minors. Tend to think it is mental as much as physical.
Rondon was a really underrated closer for the Cubs in 2014 and 2015. I think what killed Rondon is that he could only be a closer. Sounds strange, but like some set-up men can’t be closers, Rondon wasn’t a set-up man. In the 9th inning, he had a 2.80 ERA and held opponents to a .590 OPS. In the 8th inning, he had a 4.43 ERA and opponents had a .790 OPS against him. He was arguably a top 5 reliever in 2016 before the Cubs acquired Chapman.
At the end of the day, baseball is really hard and its just tough to stay good for a long period of time. Losing 5 pct physically or mentally can be all the difference.
Devo!