Cam Devanney signs with NPB’s Hanshin Tigers

Pirates third baseman Cam Devaney signs with the Hanshin Tigers of Nippon Professional Baseball, according to a report from Colin Beazley of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Devanney is on Pittsburgh’s 40-man roster, which will drop to 38 players once the deal is officially completed.

Devanney, 28, was a 15th-round pick by the Brewers in 2019 and made his big league debut with the Pirates late in the 2025 season after being acquired from the Royals this summer. Adam Frazier trade. At the time of the deal, Devanney was enjoying something of a breakout season for the Royals’ Triple-A affiliate in Omaha. In 69 games, he had slashed .272/.366/.565 with 18 home runs and 14 doubles in 288 at-bats. Devanney struck out at a 24.3% clip while walking 11.8% of the time.

That was so impressive that the Pirates decided to trade for him and give him a shot in the Majors. He played in 14 games for Pittsburgh this year, but hit just .139/.184/.167 in those games with a huge strikeout rate of 55.3%. Of course, that happened in a sample size of just 38 plate appearances, but between that work in the Majors and a paltry .256/.327/.361 slash line in 34 games with the club’s Triple-A affiliate in Indianapolis, it was already fair to wonder what Devanney’s future in the Pirates organization might actually look like.

Instead of keeping him in the fold as a potential up-and-down depth option for next year, the Pirates are opting to let Devanney go overseas and try baseball in Japan. He joins the first baseman Bob Seymour and right-handed Roansy Contreras in making the jump from MLB to NPB this winter, and it’s entirely possible that more players from the MLB bubble and minor leagues could also make the jump in the coming weeks and months. Signing abroad gives a player in that situation the opportunity to make more money than he would as a 40-man roster player with an American organization, while seeing a higher level of competition than Triple-A allows.

As far as the Pirates are concerned, Devanney’s departure doesn’t change much. It was unlikely he would fire Jared Triolo in the hot corner and while an addition to the infield could make a lot of sense given the team’s need for additional offensive firepower, any moves made on the field this winter won’t be made due to the loss of Devanney. In terms of infield depth, both Tsung Che Cheng And Emmanuel Valdez are already on the 40-man roster and could easily slide into the bench role Devanney was expected to fill.