Pirates third baseman Cam Devanney is signing 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 complete.
Devanney, 28, was a 15th-round pick by the Brewers back in 2019 who made his big league debut with the Pirates late in the 2025 season after being acquired from the Royals in this summer’s 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 homers and 14 doubles across 288 plate appearances. Devanney was striking out at a 24.3% clip while walking 11.8% of the time.
That was impressive enough that the Pirates decided to trade for him and give him a shot in the majors. He appeared in 14 games for Pittsburgh down the stretch this year, but in those games hit just .139/.184/.167 with a massive 55.3% strikeout rate. That came in a sample size of just 38 plate appearances, of course, 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 really look like.
Rather than keep him in the fold as a potential up-and-down depth option for next year, the Pirates are instead opting to let Devanney head overseas and try his hand at baseball in Japan. He will join first baseman Bob Seymour and right-hander Roansy Contreras in making the jump from MLB to NPB this winter, and it’s entirely possible more players on the bubble of MLB and the minor leagues could make the jump as well in the coming weeks and months. Signing overseas provides a player in that situation the opportunity to make more money than they would even as a 40-man roster player with a stateside organization while seeing a higher level of competition than Triple-A allows.
As for the Pirates, Devanney’s departure doesn’t move the needle much. He was unlikely to unseat Jared Triolo at the hot corner and, while an addition to the infield could make plenty of sense given the team’s need for additional offensive firepower, any moves made on the dirt this winter won’t be done because of the loss of Devanney. In terms of infield depth, both Tsung-Che Cheng and Enmanuel Valdez are already on the 40-man roster and could easily slide into the bench role Devanney was expected to occupy.