Astros’ Eric Lauer Granted Release, Will Reportedly Pursue KBO Opportunity

The Astros released left-hander Eric Lauer, who’d been with their Triple-A club in Sugar Land, per the transaction log at MiLB.com. It seems that’ll pave the way for the former Brewers and Padres hurler to sign in the Korea Baseball Organization. Per KBO reporter Daniel Kim, Lauer will sign a deal with the Kia Tigers for the remainder of the 2024 campaign.

Lauer, 29, opened the season with the Pirates’ Triple-A affiliate after signing a minor league deal in spring training and joined Houston’s Triple-A club a couple months later after opting out of that deal with Pittsburgh. He’s had rough results on the whole in Triple-A this season, working to a combined 5.26 ERA between the two teams. However, he’s been on a good run as of late (2.86 ERA over his past five starts), has maintained respectable strikeout/walk rates throughout the ’24 season (25.3%, 9.1%), and of course has a big league track record of some note.

Selected by the Padres with the No. 25 overall pick in the 2016 draft, Lauer made his big league debut with San Diego in 2018 and spent two seasons pitching at the back of the Friars’ rotation. He logged a 4.40 ERA over 53 appearances (all but one of them as a starter) and looked well on his way to cementing himself as a serviceable back-end option. The Padres traded him to Milwaukee alongside Luis Urias in a trade shipping Trent Grisham and Zach Davies back to San Diego. Lauer made four ugly appearances during the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, yielding 16 runs in 11 innings, but bounced back in a major way the following year.

Early in the 2021 season, Lauer added a slider to his repertoire and saw his results take off. He posted a 3.19 ERA and fanned 24% of his opponents in 118 2/3 innings that year, including a minuscule 2.41 ERA after incorporating his new breaking ball. The strong results continued into 2022, and Lauer wound up pitching to a combined 3.47 ERA in 277 1/3 frames across the two seasons, fanning 23.8% of his opponents against an 8.7% walk rate.

Lauer’s 2022 season was slowed by a shoulder issue, however, and he battled shoulder and elbow troubles the following year as well. The lefty saw his average fastball plummet from 93.3 mph in 2022 to 91.2 mph in 2023. In 46 2/3 big league frames, he was tattooed for a 6.56 ERA as his K/BB rates both went in the wrong direction. The Brewers sent him to Triple-A Nashville to try to get him right, but Lauer’s struggles continued, as he was knocked around for a 5.15 ERA there and did not return to the big leagues.

Lauer clearly hasn’t recaptured his 2021-22 form in Triple-A this season, but he’ll aim to do so down the stretch in the KBO with a Kia club that’s currently sporting the league’s best record at 60-41. It’s feasible that a big showing overseas could lead to interest from MLB clubs this winter, but it could also open the door for Lauer to re-sign with the Tigers for the 2025 campaign. He’d pitch all of next season at 30 years of age, and if he can either rebound to 2021-22 form or reinvent himself with some new offerings (a la Erick Fedde), an additional year in the KBO could catapult him back onto the big league radar.