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Dinelson Lamet

Royals Sign Dinelson Lamet To Minor League Deal

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The Royals announced Friday morning that they’ve signed right-hander Dinelson Lamet to a minor league contract. He opted out of a minors pact with the Dodgers early last month and has been a free agent for the past six weeks. Presumably, given that layoff, he’ll ramp up at a low-level affiliate before heading to Triple-A Omaha. Lamet is repped by the MVP Sports Group.

The 31-year-old Lamet pitched 4 1/3 innings with L.A. back in April before he was designated for assignment. He originally accepted an outright assignment to Triple-A Oklahoma City but opted out a couple months later. Lamet allowed one run in his brief Dodgers stint. He spent the rest of his time with the organization in the Triple-A rotation, working to a 4.82 ERA with a 22.5% strikeout rate and 12.9% walk rate in 37 1/3 frames.

At one point in his career, Lamet looked like one of the more promising young arms in the National League. He debuted as a 24-year-old with the Padres in 2017 and held his own with a 4.57 ERA and hefty 28.7% strikeout rate in 21 starts. He missed the next year due to Tommy John surgery but returned in 2019 with a 4.07 ERA and massive 33.5% strikeout rate. The shortened 2020 season brought a full-fledged breakout, as the righty finished fourth in NL Cy Young voting on the heels of a pristine 2.09 ERA, a career-high 34.8% strikeout rate and a strong 7.5% walk rate.

Forearm and back injuries have derailed his trajectory since. His 2021 season was marred by a pair of forearm strains, limiting him to just 47 innings. The Padres moved him to the bullpen late in the season in hopes that a move to short relief would help keep him on the field, but while he’s been relatively healthy since, his fastball has deteriorated even while moving to shorter stints. Concurrently, he’s seen his command struggles not only resurface but climb to new heights.

Dating back to Opening Day 2022, Lamet has pitched 64 1/3 big league innings between four teams but posted an 8.25 ERA. He’s still fanned more than a quarter of his opponents but has also issued walks at a 14.1% clip and plunked another five opponents (1.6%). Lamet’s heater averaged a blistering 97 mph during his breakout ’20 campaign but sat at a more pedestrian 93.7 mph during his brief run with the Dodgers earlier this season.

Royals GM J.J. Picollo talked last month about wanting to add to his club’s bullpen, acknowledging the lack of swing-and-miss in a Royals relief corps that now ranks 29th in the majors with a 19% strikeout rate. That leads only the Rockies’ 18.4% rate. Lamet will need to ramp up and perform well in Omaha with the Storm Chasers before he’s even considered a viable option, but for all his struggles in recent seasons, he’s still quite capable of missing bats thanks to a slider that regularly racks up plus whiff rates. He’s a long-shot play at this point in his career, but there’s no risk in bringing him aboard on a minor league pact to see if he can get back on track in the minors.

Dinelson Lamet Elects Free Agency

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Right-hander Dinelson Lamet, who’d been pitching with the Dodgers’ Triple-A affiliate in Oklahoma City, has elected free agency, per the transaction log at MiLB.com. Presumably, the minor league deal he inked with the Dodgers back in February contained an early June opt-out date that he chose to exercise.

Lamet, 31, briefly had his contract selected to the big league roster earlier this season. He pitched just 4 1/3 innings before being designated for assignment, clearing waivers, and accepting an outright assignment back to OKC. The former Padres hurler allowed just one earned run in that brief MLB stint. He’s spent the rest of the season in the rotation down in Triple-A, where he’s logged a 4.82 ERA, 22.5% strikeout rate, 12.9% walk rate and 44.4% ground-ball rate in 37 1/3 innings. Lamet’s bottom-line results have improved of late (3.81 ERA over his past six starts), but his command remains problematic (13.6% walk rate in that stretch).

Early in his career, Lamet looked the part of a potential rising star in San Diego. He debuted in his age-24 campaign back in 2017 and notched a hefty 28.7% strikeout rate while holding his own with a 4.57 ERA over 21 starts. His 2018 season, however, was lost to Tommy John surgery.

Upon returning in 2019, Lamet lowered that ERA to 4.07 while upping his strikeout rate to 33.5% and cutting his walk rate to 9.6%. By the time the 2020 season rolled around, the 6’3″ flamethrower looked to be putting it all together. Lamet made a “full” slate of 12 starts during the pandemic-shortened season and posted a brilliant 2.09 ERA with a career-best 34.8% strikeout rate against a better-than-average 7.5% walk rate. He finished fourth in NL Cy Young voting.

Lamet opened the 2021 season on the injured list due to inflammation in his right forearm — a worrying development for a pitcher just three years removed from UCL surgery. He was activated in late April and eased into the season with a series of two- and three-inning “starts” and long relief appearances. San Diego pushed his workload more in the summer months, as Lamet made several five-inning starts before landing back on the injured list with further forearm troubles. When he returned in September, he was a full-time reliever — and that’s been his primary role since.

Lamet posted a 4.08 ERA in 315 2/3 innings over parts of five years with the Padres, striking out nearly 31% of his opponents along the way. He was struggling through what looked like a lost 2022 season when traded to the Brewers as a financial component of the ’22 Josh Hader blockbuster, however. Milwaukee immediately designated him for assignment, at which point the Rockies scooped him up on waivers. Lamet had a decent finish in Colorado, which helped him to avoid a non-tender, but he posted an 11.71 ERA in 27 2/3 innings between the Rox and Red Sox in 2023.

All told, Lamet has pitched to an 8.25 ERA in 64 1/3 big league innings dating back to Opening Day 2022. It’s an unsightly track record, but he’s turned in decent results as a starter with the Dodgers’ top minor league affiliate and can now market himself as an option to a team needing immediate rotation depth or any club seeking bullpen help.

Dodgers Outright Dinelson Lamet

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April 9: Lamet cleared waivers and has been assigned outright to Triple-A Oklahoma City, per the team’s transaction log at MLB.com. He has more than enough service time (nearly six years) to reject the assignment in favor of free agency, if he chooses.

April 6: The Dodgers announced that right-hander Dinelson Lamet has been designated for assignment. The move opens up a roster space for fellow righty Gus Varland, who has been called up from Triple-A.

Lamet’s minor league deal was selected to the active roster on April 1, and he has posted a 2.08 ERA over three appearances and 4 1/3 innings of work. While a small sample size, Lamet’s 16.7% strikeout rate was uninspiring, and he allowed a solo homer to Michael Busch during 1 1/3 frames in yesterday’s 9-7 Dodgers loss to the Cubs. If Lamet is the proverbial 26th man on the roster, Los Angeles seems willing to risk losing him on outright waivers in order to add a fresh arm in Varland, though it is certainly possible Lamet clears waivers and remains in the organization.

This cup of coffee with the Dodgers represents one of Lamet’s better stretches of pitching in the last four years, as he has a 6.63 ERA over 111 1/3 innings with four different big league clubs since the start of the 2021 campaign. Once a promising starter in the Padres’ rotation in 2019-20, Lamet has been set back by injuries and a consistent lack of control when facing MLB batters.

Dodgers Designate Nabil Crismatt For Assignment

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The Dodgers announced that right-hander Nabil Crismatt has been designated for assignment. His roster spot will go to fellow righty Dinelson Lamet, whose impending selection was reported on earlier today.

Crismatt, 29, was just selected to the roster yesterday. He earned the win in yesterday’s 5-4 victory over the Cardinals, pitching the seventh and eighth innings while the Dodgers were losing 4-2. He put up zeroes in his two frames, striking out three opponents while allowing just one hit and no walks, providing the club with the chance for a comeback win.

Despite that solid performance, it seems he is a victim of circumstance. Manager Dave Roberts informed the Dodgers’ beat, including Juan Toribio of MLB.com, that the club is planning to do a bullpen game tomorrow in order to give the starters some extra rest. That meant bringing in a fresh arm in Lamet while Crismatt got nudged out, likely because he is out of options and doesn’t provide the club with a lot of roster flexibility.

They will now have a week to trade Crismatt or pass him through waivers, though he has a previous career outright and would have the right to elect free agent rather than accept another such assignment. He’s coming off a rough season, having posted an earned run average of 8.31 over his eight major league appearances last year and a 6.86 ERA in the minors. He was in better form in the previous two seasons, when he posted a 3.39 ERA over 148 2/3 innings for the Padres. He struck out 21.6% of batters faced in that time while walking just 7.3%.

Dodgers To Select Dinelson Lamet

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The Dodgers are calling up right-hander Dinelson Lamet, per Robert Murray of FanSided. The righty is not currently on the 40-man roster and will require a corresponding move.

Lamet, 31, had to settle for a minor league deal this offseason after increasing struggles in recent seasons. Though he looked like one of the better pitchers in the league in the shortened 2020 season, his ERA jumped in each campaign after that. But he appeared to be in good form during Spring Training with the Dodgers, as he made four appearances with just one earned run allowed. He struck out five batters, walked just one and got grounders on 60% of balls in play.

If he were to get even partially back on track, it would be a nice find for the Dodgers. Lamet made 12 starts for the Padres in 2020 with a 2.09 earned run average, 34.8% strikeout rate and 7.5% walk rate, finishing fourth in National League Cy Young voting. But he missed the postseason due to biceps tightness and the health issues continued beyond that season.

He dealt with some forearm issues in 2021, with the ailment being labeled as tightness, fatigue and inflammation at various times. He also underwent a procedure for a hip infection that year. He made 22 appearances but only nine of them were starts as the Friars gradually moved him more to a relief role as he battled those issues, his ERA ticking up to 4.40 in the process.

His struggles worsened in 2022 and he got flipped to the Brewers as part of the Josh Hader deal. Milwaukee quickly put him on waivers, indicating his inclusion in the trade was mostly for financial reasons. He was claimed by the Rockies and finished the year with a 6.12 ERA. He split time between the Rockies and Red Sox in 2023 but his ERA jumped all the way to 11.41. His strikeout rate had fallen to 22.1% while his walk rate climbed to 15.9%.

The Dodgers will obviously be hoping to see that trend reversed and have Lamet in better form than that. He has more than five years of service time and can’t be optioned, meaning he’ll have to stick on the active roster or else be removed from the 40-man entirely at some future point.

Dodgers Sign Dinelson Lamet To Minors Contract

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The Dodgers have signed right-hander Dinelson Lamet to a minor league deal, according to Jon Heyman of the New York Post (via X).  The 31-year-old Lamet also receives an invitation to the Dodgers’ big league spring camp.

Lamet has spent almost his entire career in the NL West, apart from a couple of months (and a single MLB game) in the Red Sox organization last season, and an even briefer four-day stint with the Brewers without any appearances at any level in 2022, as Milwaukee quickly designated Lamet for assignment after acquiring him as part of the Josh Hader trade.

It has been an unfortunately quick drop from Cy Young Award contender to borderline journeyman status for Lamet, who has been plagued by injuries since his seeming breakout year with the Padres in 2020.  Since Opening Day 2021, however, Lamet has amassed only 107 total innings in the big leagues, while posting an ungainly 6.88 ERA.  Lamet pitched decently well for the Rockies during the remainder of the 2022 season after Colorado claimed him off waivers from Milwaukee, but that limited success didn’t at all carry over to this past season, as Lamet had an 11.71 ERA over his 16 appearances with the Rockies and one game with the Red Sox.

As much as Lamet has struggled over the last few years, Padres and Rockies fans are undoubtedly fearful that a career revival could take place in Los Angeles, given how the Dodgers have scored on a number of reclamation projects in recent years.  There’s no risk for the Dodgers in seeing what Lamet can do during Spring Training, and whether or not he can stay healthy and recapture any of his early-career form.

Red Sox Outright Dinelson Lamet

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On Saturday, August 12, the Boston Red Sox sent Dinelson Lamet outright to Triple-A Worcester, according to the transaction log at MLB.com. This comes four days after the right-hander was designated for assignment. He will have the right to reject this assignment and elect free agency, though it’s not yet clear if he’s chosen to do so.

Lamet began the 2023 season in the Colorado Rockies organization, appearing in 16 games for the big league club. He posted a 12.66 ERA in 12 appearances out of the bullpen, and despite his struggles, the Rockies tried to transition him into a starting role. He put together a 10.80 ERA across four starts, and he was ultimately released after a four-inning, eight-run blow-up against the Braves.

Following his release, Lamet signed a minor league contract with the Red Sox and was assigned to Triple-A. The 31-year-old made five appearances (four starts) for Worcester, pitching to a 3.72 ERA in 19 1/3 innings. The Red Sox selected his contract on August 7, and he appeared in one game for the club, giving up four hits and three runs in two innings of work. He was DFA’d on Wednesday to make room for on the 40-man roster for Kyle Barraclough, another veteran right-handed arm and Lamet’s teammate from Triple-A.

It’s been a difficult few years for Lamet, who once looked like a promising member of the San Diego Padres’ core. He made his MLB debut in 2017, making 21 starts for the Padres. He threw 114 1/3 innings with a 4.57 ERA and 4.03 SIERA. He lost his 2018 season recovering from Tommy John surgery but came back strong in the second half of 2019, making 14 starts with a 4.07 ERA and 3.61 SIERA. He was even better during the shortened 2020 season, posting a 2.09 ERA in 12 starts. His ERA ranked third among qualified NL starters and finished fourth in voting for the NL Cy Young.

Unfortunately, things went south in 2021. An elbow injury that popped up at the end of the 2020 season kept him on the injured list for most of April, and forearm injuries plagued him as the year went on. The Padres eventually moved him to the bullpen, keeping him there in 2022. He continued to struggle with injury and inconsistency, and San Diego eventually flipped him to the Brewers at the trade deadline as a small piece in the Josh Hader deal. Milwaukee would designate him for assignment days later.

The Rockies scooped up Lamet for their own bullpen, where he had considerably more success. In 19 appearances, he pitched to a 4.05 ERA and 2.94 SIERA. After the season, he agreed to a one-year, $5 million deal with Colorado to avoid his final year of arbitration. The Rockies are still on the hook for that since they released Lamet earlier in the year.  Lamet has more than enough service time to reject an outright assignment while retaining his remaining salary, meaning it’s possible he’ll return to the open market in the coming days.

Red Sox Designate Dinelson Lamet For Assignment

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1:30pm: The Red Sox have now officially announced these moves.

10:08am: The Red Sox are planning to designate right-hander Dinelson Lamet for assignment as part of a series of roster moves, reports MassLive.com’s Christopher Smith. His spot on the roster will go to veteran righty Kyle Barraclough, whose contract is being selected from Triple-A Worcester. Boston is also set to recall lefty Brandon Walter from Worcester, with righty Nick Robertson being optioned there in his place.

Lamet’s stay on Boston’s big league roster will prove extremely brief. The former Padres and Rockies hurler was only just selected to the Majors two days ago. He appeared in one game, serving up three runs on three hits and a walk with one strikeout and a wild pitch in two innings of work.

Lamet was a legitimate Cy Young contender during the shortened 2020 season, but injuries have been a major issue for the 31-year-old righty in the seasons since. He’s encountered a biceps strain, a UCL sprain, forearm inflammation and a hip injury that required a “cleanup” procedure in the years since that scintillating 2020 effort (wherein he posted a 2.09 ERA and 34.8% strikeout rate in a dozen starts).

Including this brief, unsightly stop with the BoSox, Lamet has a 6.81 ERA in his past 107 big league innings. While he had pitched decently over in Worcester prior to his call to the big leagues, Lamet will make a quick exit in favor of a fresh arm — fellow veteran hurler Barraclough.

The 33-year-old Barraclough has appeared in 288 big league games, all coming out of the bullpen, and posted a 3.61 ERA with a very strong 28.9% strikeout rate but also a woeful 14% walk rate. The bulk of his Major League success came early in his career with the Marlins, from 2015-18. Since that time, he’s logged just 55 2/3 innings while pitching to a 5.17 ERA.

Interestingly, the Red Sox have been using Barraclough as a starter in Worcester, and the experiment has gone quite well. Seven of his eight appearances since signing out of the independent Atlantic League have been starts, and Barraclough has recorded a sharp 2.57 ERA in 42 innings. Granted, his strikeout rate is down considerably (17.8%), and walks remain an issue (11.9%). The Sox either see more to like in Barraclough than Lamet or simply need another fresh arm after Kutter Crawford was knocked out of the game in the fourth inning yesterday, leading to three relievers covering 5 2/3 innings. Lamet and Robertson combined to cover five of those frames.

Now that the trade deadline has come and gone, the Sox’ only options with Lamet are to place him on outright waivers or release waivers. He has more than five years of big league service, so he’ll be able to reject a minor league assignment and become a free agent even if he goes unclaimed. Because of that service time, he’d have been a free agent at season’s end even if he’d stuck on Boston’s roster and performed well for the remainder of the year.

Barraclough, meanwhile, entered the season with 4.089 years of Major League service. The most he’ll be able to accrue from here on out is 54 days, which would leave him shy of five years of service, thus making him eligible to be retained another two seasons via arbitration. There’s quite a ways to go before that’s even a consideration, and it’s likelier that Barraclough will have a brief stay on the roster himself, but that remaining club control is at least worth noting in the event that he sustains his Triple-A pace in the big leagues.

Red Sox Designate Richard Bleier For Assignment

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The Red Sox announced Monday that they’ve designated lefty Richard Bleier for assignment and selected the contract of veteran righty Dinelson Lamet from Triple-A Worcester.

Bleier, 36, came to the Sox in the offseason trade that sent righty Matt Barnes and cash to Miami. It was a change-of-scenery swap for the two veteran relievers that hasn’t proved particularly fruitful for either side. Bleier has missed time with a shoulder issue and been tagged for a 5.28 ERA in 30 1/3 frames with the Red Sox when healthy. Barnes posted a comparable 5.48 ERA in 21 1/3 innings before undergoing season-ending surgery to repair a hip impingement.

Prior to his struggles in Boston, Bleier had a history of strong ERAs despite one of the league’s lowest strikeout rates. He’s still sporting a career 3.27 ERA in his careeran despite just a 13.6% strikeout rate, thanks largely to a pristine 3.9% walk rate, a huge 60.9% ground-ball rate and a knack for avoiding hard contact. However, he’s seen his results gradually worsen each since opening his big league career with a trio of sub-2.00 ERAs from 2016-18.

Bleier is earning $3.5MM this season, with about $1MM of that sum yet to be paid out. He’s also guaranteed the $250K buyout on a $3.75MM option for the 2024 season. Given his poor results, shoulder issues and that remaining salary, he’s all but certain to pass through waivers unclaimed. If he does so, he has enough service time to reject an outright assignment while retaining the remainder of his salary. Because of that, Bleier appears destined for the open market, at which point any team could sign him and owe the lefty only the prorated league minimum for any time spent on the big league roster. That sum would be subtracted from the roughly $1.25MM the Red Sox still owe him (including that option buyout).

In Lamet, the Sox will turn to another change-of-scenery hopeful. The former Padres strikeout machine has seen his stock dwindle in recent seasons. Lamet was a legitimate Cy Young contender during the shortened 2020 season, but injuries have been a major issue for the 31-year-old righty in the seasons since. Lamet has encountered a biceps strain, a UCL sprain, forearm inflammation and a hip injury that required a “cleanup” procedure in the years since that scintillating 2020 effort (wherein he posted a 2.09 ERA and 34.8% strikeout rate in a dozen starts).

Since that 2020 season drew to a close, Lamet has pitched to a collective 6.69 ERA in 105 innings between the Padres and Rockies. His 27% strikeout rate remains well above the league average, but Lamet has also walked a bloated 12.8% of his opponents. His 95.4 mph average fastball, while still impressive, has dropped noticeably from its 97 mph peak during that brilliant 2020 season.

Lamet signed a minor league deal with Boston earlier this summer, and since joining their top affiliate in Worcester he’s turned in a 3.72 ERA with a pedestrian 20% strikeout rate and a solid 8.8% walk rate that could be considered encouraging, given his longstanding command issues. The Sox figure to use him as a reliever, and it’ll likely be a short stay with the organization regardless of his results. If Lamet continues to struggle as he has since 2021, the Sox will presumably move on before long. And if he rights the ship, he’ll have enough service time at season’s end to reach free agency. There’s certainly a scenario where Lamet pitches well and re-signs in Boston, but there are quite a few hurdles for the big righty to clear before that’ll be a legitimate consideration.

Red Sox, Dinelson Lamet Agree To Minor League Deal

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The Red Sox and right-hander Dinelson Lamet are in agreement on a minor league contract, per the team’s transaction log at MLB.com. The Rockies designated Lamet for assignment on June 17 and released him a week later.

It’s been a tough season for the 30-year-old Lamet, who missed multiple weeks due to a back injury and has been hit hard when healthy enough to take the mound. The 6’3″ righty pitched 25 2/3 innings with Colorado but was tattooed for 33 earned runs on 38 hits and a dismal 22 walks in that time. Lamet’s 31 strikeouts in those 25 2/3 frames look like a strong number, but because of all the walks and long innings, he’s actually only fanned 23.1% of his opponents — well below his career mark of 30.2%. His 16.4% walk rate, meanwhile, is a career-high mark.

Once one of the top pitchers in the National League, Lamet has endured a precipitous decline in recent seasons. The righty showed enormous strikeout potential early in his career with the Padres, but Tommy John surgery wiped out his 2018 season. He had a solid return in 2019 and looked to be taking his game to new heights in 2020, when he posted a 2.09 ERA, 34.8% strikeout rate and 7.5% walk rate in 69 innings during the shortened 2020 season — good for a fourth-place finish in NL Cy Young voting.

Lamet entered the 2021 season locked into San Diego’s rotation, but forearm injuries limited him to 47 innings with a pedestrian 4.40 ERA. He’s struggled to get back on track. In 58 frames between the Padres, Brewers and Rockies over the past two seasons, he’s yielded a grim 8.53 ERA. Lamet’s fastball, which averaged 97 mph in 2020, was sitting at 95 mph in this year’s 25 2/3 innings. His strikeout rate, swinging-strike rate, opponents’ chase rate, walk rate and home-run rate in 2023 are all at career-worst levels.

Obviously, the past few seasons do little to inspire confidence in a turnaround. However, the Rockies are on the hook for the remainder of Lamet’s $5MM salary, meaning the Red Sox would only owe him the prorated league minimum for any time spent on the MLB roster. In other words, the minor league deal amounts to a free look at a big arm who as recently as 2021 was viewed as a potential high-end starting pitcher. At the very least, Lamet can provide rotation or bullpen depth in Triple-A, and if the Sox are able to get him back on track in a way that the Rockies weren’t able, he’ll only cost them a few hundred thousand dollars down the stretch. If not, they can move on with minimal investment in this particular dice roll.

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