Joey Devine’s once-promising career has once again been derailed by injuries, as the A’s reliever will undergo elbow surgery today performed by Dr. James Andrews.
Devine was the Braves’ first-round pick in 2005, was traded to the A’s for Mark Kotsay in 2008, and has a 2.75 ERA with 9.1 strikeouts per nine innings for his career.
Unfortunately he’s 28 years old and has been limited to a grand total of just 88 innings, missing all of 2009 and 2010 following Tommy John surgery. He bounced back well enough to throw 23 innings with a 3.52 ERA and 20/11 K/BB ratio for the A’s last season, but is now headed back under the knife and could miss all of this season depending on what Andrews finds.
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UPDATE, 7:28 PM: Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle reports that Devine will have Tommy John surgery -- the second of his career. It’s safe to wonder if he’ll ever make it back.
