Former Houston Astros Fan Favorite Released From Fourth Team in Five Years
The Houston Astros need to find pitching depth and could be a candidate to make a reunion with a former fan favorite?
Houston moved on from reliever Chris Devenski after the 2020 season and it's been a rough couple of years since.
Devenski's career started out on the top. He had a stellar rookie year out of the bullpen where he had a 2.16 ERA in 108.1 innings pitched, He finished the season fourth in AL Rookie of the Year voting.
His sophomore campaign, 2017, was the year that the Astros won their first World Series. 'Devo' was an instrumental part in that playoff run and became a fan favorite very quickly.
He he had a devastating fastball-changeup combo that drove his K/9 up to 11.2 in just his second season.
Just a year later, teams seemed to have gotten a read on his fastball and he never recovered.
By 2020, he missed a majority of season due to an injury but pitched in just 4 games and finished with a 14.73 ERA.
Batters were finding his fastball with ease and drove his strikeout down severely. His ineffectiveness was made worse by his injury issues, rarely allowing him time to find a groove.
He pitched a combined 14.2 in innings with an ERA of 8.59 innings between the Arizona Diamondbacks and Philadelphia Phillies in 2022. That's the same number he reached the year before in Arizona.
The California native was signed by the Los Angeles Angels in 2023, but didn't make the opening day roster. He did make his way up to to the MLB squad and put together his best outings in years. Across 29 games he had a 5.08 ERA.
He missed a month due to injury and was eventually let go. Things were even better with the Tampa Bay Rays, with a solid 2.08 ERA in 8.2 innings to finish the year.
The now 33-year-old resigned with Tampa Bay this year, but was just let go after he allowed a 6.75 ERA in 19 outings.
He's introduced a cutter that is seeing better results than his normal fourseam, he just doesn't utilize it often.
While the numbers haven't been great, it might be worth kicking the tires to see if something inside of him can wake up to perform at a portion of what he could during his time in Houston.
Likely surgeries could make that hard, but the Astros could be desperate for a fresh arm thanks to the current state of their pitching staff.
DYLAN SANDERS
Dylan Sanders graduated from Louisiana State University with a degree from the Manship School of Mass Communication in 2023. He was born in raised in Baton Rouge, LA but has also lived in Buffalo, NY. Though he is a recent graduate, he has been writing about sports since he was in high school, covering different sports from baseball to football. While in college, he wrote for the school paper The Reveille and for 247Sports. He was able cover championships in football, baseball and women's basketball during his time at LSU. He has also spent a few years covering the NFL draft and every day activities of the New Orleans Saints. He is a Senior Writer at Inside the Marlins and will also be found across Sports Illustrated's baseball sites as a contributing writer. You can follow him on Twitter or Instagram @dillysanders