The Astros are in agreement with right-hander Peter Lambert on a minor league contract, reports Aram Leighton of Just Baseball. The 28-year-old returns stateside after a season in Japan with the Yakult Swallows.
Lambert made 21 starts in his only year in Nippon Professional Baseball. He allowed a 4.26 earned run average across 116 1/3 innings. That’s not an especially impressive number in a pitcher-friendly league. Lambert had the fifth-highest ERA among the 47 NPB pitchers to toss at least 100 frames. He fanned 20.5% of opponents — a solid mark in a league where hitters are more focused on putting the ball in play than they are in MLB — but issued walks at a 10.2% clip. That’s the highest rate among the aforementioned group of 47 pitchers.
A former second-round pick of the Rockies, Lambert pitched parts of four seasons with Colorado. He started 19 games as a rookie back in 2019 and worked in a swing role after that. Lambert’s most recent big league action came in 2024, when he allowed 5.72 earned runs per nine over 61 1/3 innings. He has a 6.28 ERA with a 16.4% strikeout rate over his big league career.
The Astros are likely to stockpile upper minors rotation depth. They’ll almost certainly non-tender Luis Garcia (who is again out for the season after another Tommy John procedure) and will have each of Hayden Wesneski, Ronel Blanco and Brandon Walter on the injured list after they underwent elbow surgeries. They’re expected to let Framber Valdez walk and Lance McCullers Jr. shouldn’t be locked into a rotation spot. Houston already took a $1.35MM flier on former top prospect Nate Pearson to allow him to compete for a starting role. Lambert seems likelier to open the season at Triple-A Sugar Land.
Lambert sheepishly agrees to ML deal.
His agent is obviously not that faux birth certificate wielding commie plant, Скотт Борас.
Yes, but 5 days after the World Series those 3 pitchers who are on the injured list are magically healed and are added to the 40 man roster. They remain Un-injured until 2026 when they once again revert to being injured.
They are not magically healed. The injured list just doesn’t exist in the offseason. They have to either be put on the 40 man or released. Makes sense because otherwise teams would stash lots of players on the IL during the offseason with mysterious injuries.
He hasn’t had even a decent season in his CAREER…at ANY level.
So of course we should take a flier. 🤦♂️
There is no such thing as a bad minor league contract
This could be a good deal for the ‘Stros. It’s hard to develop as a pitcher pitching in Denver, and although he wasn’t great in Japan, he was again playing in a hitters’ park and getting some better than AAA reps starting for the Swallows. He’s only 29 in 2026.