The Royals announced today that they have selected the contract of infielder/outfielder Cam Devanney. In a corresponding active roster move, outfielder Mark Canha has been placed on the 10-day injured list due to left elbow epicondylitis. To open a 40-man spot, left-hander Cole Ragans was transferred to the 60-day IL.
Devanney was a 2019 Brewers draftee (15th round) who landed in the Royals organization by way of 2023’s Taylor Clarke trade. He’s posting career-best numbers in Triple-A this year, albeit as a 28-year-old who’s in his fourth season at that level.
Devanney has taken 288 turns at the plate and logged a .272/.366/.565 batting line with 18 homers, 14 doubles, a pair of triples, three steals (in four tries), an 11.8% walk rate and a 24.3% strikeout rate. He’s primarily played shortstop but also logged time at second base, at third base and in left field. The outfield work is largely new to him, but Devanney has 608 career innings at second and 806 career frames at third (plus more than 3100 innings as a shortstop).
This will be Devanney’s first action at the big league level. He’ll give the Royals some versatility and a right-handed bat to replace that of Canha, who’s posted a career-worst .212/.272/.265 slash in 125 plate appearances with Kansas City so far in 2025. Canha was sporting a league-average batting line into late May, but it’s fair to wonder how long his elbow has been bothering him, given that he’s recorded an anemic .104/.137/.188 line over his past 51 trips to the plate.
Ragans has already missed more than a month due to a rotator cuff strain and only recently resumed throwing. He’ll need to progress through multiple checkpoints — throwing off a mound, facing live hitters — before he commences a minor league rehab assignment that’ll likely span multiple starts. It was already known that he was likely to be out beyond the All-Star break.
The move to the 60-day injured list doesn’t reset Ragans’ IL clock but rather pushes back the earliest possible activation date. Given that only just starting to play catch after a four-week shutdown period, there wasn’t much chance he’d have been ready for activation before early-to-mid August anyhow. He can now be activated no earlier than Aug. 7.