November 17: Lamet will make $5MM in 2023, per Jon Heyman of The New York Post.
November 16: The Rockies announced that they have agreed to terms on a one-year deal with right-hander Dinelson Lamet, avoiding arbitration. The terms have not yet been revealed but MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projected him for a salary of $4.8MM.
Lamet, 30, has been on a bit of a roller coaster in the past few years. In the shortened 2020 season, he seemingly broke out with an excellent campaign with the Padres. He made 12 starts and threw 69 innings, posting a 2.09 ERA along with a 34.8% strikeout rate, 7.5% walk rate and 36.9% ground ball rate.
Unfortunately, the next two years saw him fall from those incredible heights. A forearm issue sent him to the injured list twice in 2021, limiting him to just 47 innings on the year, which included a move to the bullpen. The Padres kept him as a reliever going into 2022, but Lamet didn’t take to the new role. He posted a 9.49 ERA over 12 1/3 innings before getting flipped to the Brewers as part of the Josh Hader trade.
Lamet never pitched for the Brewers, as they designated him for assignment just two days after acquiring him. David Stearns, who was Milwaukee’s president of baseball operations at the time, said that Lamet “was included in the trade to help balance out the deal” but that “as subsequent transactions played out, the roster fit became a little tougher.” It’s possible that the Brewers just took on Lamet to offset some salary for the Padres or that their subsequent acquisitions of Trevor Rosenthal and Matt Bush squeezed him out of their plans. Either way, the Rockies were the beneficiary as they claimed him off waivers.
Lamet had a much stronger second half after joining the Rockies. He got into 19 games for them and threw 20 innings, posting a 4.05 ERA in that time. His strikeout rate jumped to 33.3% after being at 25.8% with San Diego. He also dropped his walk rate from 14.5% to 11.5%.
The Rockies often struggle to attract pitchers to join their club, given the hitter-friendly nature of their home ballpark. By claiming Lamet off waivers, they’ve grabbed a guy who had a dominant 2020 season and, though he seemed lost for a while, finished 2022 on a strong note. If he can recapture his past form, he could be a valuable piece for the club.
When tf did Lamet go to Colorado
He was part of the Brewers’ return in the Hader trade, then they DFA’ed him after some other reliever acquisitions. COL claimed him off waivers as a result.
late July. His DFA got lost in the trade deadline news. Luckily the Rockies didn’t participate in the trade deadline and thus didn’t miss the news. Seriously, he did pitch very well in a set up role for the team down the stretch. I only remember one game where he just sucked, but the rest of the time it was a lot of 1-2-3 innings.
I hope the Rockies try to keep him in that set up role and don’t try to make him a starter. #1 set up guys can influence far more games than starters in the modern game.
Ye does not approve
Why?
Guy was a godsend for Colorado end of last year. Struck out everyone. For some reason his slider works at altitude when others don’t. If they could figure out why that is, they’d make some progress.
Every guy that comes in for mop up duty is a godsend. Even if its your RF or 2B picking up those innings. Its saving real pitchers arms. He had a 4+ ERA for the Rockheads. 6+ on the season. I don’t think he has ever stayed healthy for a full season.
Just like Hanser..Teams can use him.
Except he wasn’t a mop up guy. He was the regular 7th or 8th inning guy in winning situations the majority of the time. Easily the #3 guy behind Bard and Colome during the second half of the year. Should be the #1 set up guy for Bard this season assuming they don’t try to convert him back to a starter.
@outinleftfield
Was this your attempt to write the least informed scouting report ever written on a player? Because I think you nailed it!
AA picks him up on the cheap for like 2013 first round pick still in Double A for ATL. He pitches to a 1.99 ERA and is the reason the Braves win the 2023 WS.
Loving Braise Fan,
Muah
The Phillies will just knock you out of the playoffs again.
Feel like he’ll be starting next year. For some reason my dumb brain just can’t hate the Rockies and always think that they’ll be OK every off season
Could easily be a starter, if he shows a pulse next spring.
Hopefully he will be alive?
Add me to the list of people that had no idea he was on the Rockies. Dude is a borderline top of the rotation pitcher when healthy
Not your fault. The combination of ESPN, Fox, and MLB network do no realize the Rockies exist, therefore people that don’t specifically watch their games do not get to see them play. The Rockies have played a grand total of SEVEN Sunday Night Baseball games in their 30 year history or about the same number of games featuring just the Yankees vs Red Sox in the past two years. And people wonder why a majority of baseball teams are anonymous to the casual fans.
Good luck Lamet. 5 million for one year is a lot for your rag arm. Hope you prove me wrong and pitch lights out again.
I thought acquiring Dinelson Limet, absorbed his salary then just letting him go was senseless and one of the reasons David Stearns departed.
Especially when he was DFA’d because of the subsequent inexplicable trade for Trevor Rosenthal who was injured and never pitched an inning for the Brewers.
I will never forget the 2020 season he put up for the Padres. So much fun to watch that year.