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Dinelson Lamet

Dinelson Lamet To Undergo Tommy John Surgery

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Padres righty Dinelson Lamet will undergo Tommy John surgery, MLB.com’s AJ Cassavell reports on Twitter. He’ll miss the remainder of the 2018 season and, likely, some of the 2019 campaign as well.

When Lamet hit the DL to open the year, the expectation was that it was only to allow him a brief rest after some elbow pain cropped up. Instead, a closer look evidently revealed damage to his ulnar collateral ligament. As Cassavell notes, the young righty hoped at first to rehab rather than undergoing surgery, but ultimately elected to bite the bullet and have the procedure.

It came as something of a surprise when Lamet was brought up to the majors early in the 2017 campaign. But he quickly proved he belonged, showing a strong fastball-slider combo that played in the rotation despite the fact that he only went to his third pitch (a change) in less than one of every twenty deliveries. The 25-year-old Lamet ended the year with a 4.57 ERA over 114 1/3 innings. He recorded 10.9 K/9 on an 11.8% swinging strike rate while permitting a few too many walks and dingers (4.3 and 1.42 per nine, respectively).

Though there are obviously still some elements of Lamet’s game in need of being smoothed out, the hope was that he would continue to advance while providing solid innings at the MLB level. Now, he’ll be staring down a lengthy rehab process. When the 2019 season gets underway, Lamet will already have accrued 1.130 days of MLB service, so he’ll be primed for potential Super Two status if he goes straight back to the majors once he finishes his rehab.

NL West Links: Lamet, Giants, Salas, Dodgers

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Padres right-hander Dinelson Lamet is headed for the disabled list after leaving Sunday’s outing after just six batters due to elbow pain, Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union-Tribune reports.  There doesn’t appear to be any structural damage to Lamet’s elbow and a source tells Acee that the righty will miss just “minimal time,” though that absence looks like it could last into May.  “The hope is he will miss only the season’s first month,” Acee writes, which is a somewhat ominously vague timeframe for a pitcher who was expected to play a big role in San Diego’s rotation.  Lamet posted a 4.57 ERA, 2.57 K/BB rate and a whopping 10.9 K/9 over 114 1/3 innings in his rookie season, displaying some control and home run-allowance issues but impressing many with his ability to miss bats.

More from around the NL West…

  • A Giants trade for starting pitching help is “not likely” as of tonight, a source tells MLB.com’s Jon Paul Morosi (Twitter links), though the team is considering adding a starter with Madison Bumgarner and Jeff Samardzija both on the DL.  Morosi cites the Astros’ Brad Peacock and Collin McHugh as arms that could be available, though these could be speculative names rather than pitchers the Giants are directly targeting.  San Francisco doesn’t have much luxury tax room to afford taking on any significant salary, nor does the club have much in the way of prospect depth to trade away, so it will be interesting to see how (or if) the Giants can adjust to these devastating early-season rotation losses.
  • Fernando Salas’ minor league contract with the Diamondbacks will pay him $1.5MM in base salary now that he has made the team’s Opening Day roster, The Athletic’s Zach Buchanan reports (Twitter link).  The right-hander can also earn some additional money via performances bonuses.  Salas posted an 0.90 ERA, 7.2 K/9, and just two walks over 10 spring innings for the D’Backs, an impressive performance that won him a slot on the 25-man roster.
  • Even though the Dodgers made moves to get under the luxury tax threshold this winter, ESPN’s Buster Olney (subscription required) isn’t certain that this team will use the reset of their tax penalties to pursue a big-name free agent like Manny Machado or Bryce Harper.  Splurging on a decade-long contract for Machado or Harper would seem to run counter to how president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman works, though Olney wonders if Friedman could pursue a tactic like offering a shorter-term deal but with a higher average annual value.  Of course, L.A. could also spend in different ways next winter, such as acquiring an expensive player in a trade, or (most importantly) exploring an extension for Clayton Kershaw, who can opt out of his current deal after the season.

NL Notes: Darvish, Marlins, Padres, Foltynewicz

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With the Cubs introducing righty Yu Darvish yesterday, Gordon Wittenmyer of the Chicago Sun-Times covers the key takeaways. Other teams dangled six-year offers of similar value, per Wittenmyer, though it seems that interest at a higher price point simply did not develop. Whether that means the Cubs secured a relative bargain or simply reflects the league’s valuation of an excellent but hardly flawless pitcher, the bottom line is that Darvish represents a major addition to one of the game’s best rosters. Cubs president of baseball operations Theo Epstein says the team was pleasantly surprised to be able to land Darvish at a rate that still kept the overall payroll under the luxury tax line. He also noted that the team will now have limited capacity for taking on salary during the course of the season. While Epstein framed the matter as one of managing the team’s short and long-term spending ability, those comments seemingly indicate that the luxury line is functioning as a soft ceiling this year for yet another top MLB organization.

More from the National League:

  • The Marlins have settled on an executive to lead their drive to improve on the revenue side. As MLB.com’s Joe Frisaro reports, the club has hired Chip Bowers as its new president of business operations. CEO Derek Jeter will oversee Bowers, who comes over from a stint as the chief marketing officer of the NBA’s Golden State Warriors. Elsewhere in Fish Land, Dave Hyde of the Sun Sentinel writes that Jeter ought still be given some room to operate before observers reach conclusions about his tenure atop the team’s operational hierarchy.
  • Padres skipper Andy Green struck an optimistic tone in an interesting and wide-ranging discussion entering camp, as Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union-Tribune writes. Those who’d like to get a sense of where the organization stands will want to read the entire chat. Of particular note, Green says the stance entering camp is that Clayton Richard and Bryan Mitchell already have rotation spots, with Dinelson Lamet and Luis Perdomo in the lead but not assured of a starting role. Otherwise, there’s a lengthy list of potential competitors. Likewise, second base and the outfield figure to be open battlegrounds over the coming weeks.
  • It’s often said that arbitration hearings can lead to some tension between players and teams, and it seems that’s just what has happened with righty Mike Foltynewicz and the Braves. As David O’Brien of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution writes, Foltynewicz left the hearing with some frustrations about how things were handled by the organization. The team ended up winning a case that was held over a spread of just $100K. That said, the 26-year-old indicates that the experience won’t change his approach, telling O’Brien that he’s ready to “go to work and try to make this team better.”

Agency Changes: Chad Green, Dinelson Lamet

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As always, we track agency changes here at MLBTR in our Agency Database. Here are the latest notable changes in player representation, both courtesy of ESPN.com’s Jerry Crasnick (Twitter links):

  • Yankees righty Chad Green is moving his business to Frontline, per the report, joining a pitching-heavy client list led by Dallas Keuchel and Andrew Miller. Though he showed promise with intriguing strikeout and walk numbers in 2016, Green’s 2017 campaign came as an eye opener. In 69 frames over 40 appearances, he punched out 13.4 batters per nine while walking just 2.2 and carrying a sterling 1.83 ERA. Green sat at about 96 mph with his average heater and racked up a strong 15.0% swinging-strike rate.
  • Meanwhile, intriguing young Padres righty Dinelson Lamet has hired Magnus Sports, an agency known for its long list of clients from Latin America. Among the outfit’s most recognizable players is a trio of notable Yankees (Aroldis Chapman, Gary Sanchez, and Starlin Castro). Lamet exhibited some walk and home run difficulties in his debut season, but also racked up 10.9 K/9 and produced a 4.57 ERA in 114 1/3 innings. If he can build upon that opening work, Lamet could become a key part of a hopeful new rotation core in San Diego.

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