NEWSLETTER
Despite having just acquired him from the Padres as part of the Josh Hader trade, the Brewers are already prepared to lose pitcher Dinelson Lamet.
The former big-time Padres pitcher has been designated for assignment:
Because Lamet has enough service time to reject an option to the minors, the only way for the Padres to move him off the big league roster was to DFA him, waive him, and hope he clears waivers.
Any chance the Cubs claim Lamet, given how much they have lovvvvved him in the past? Well, the reality is, that was a long time ago, and Lamet has since battled injuries and underperformance. He hasn’t even managed 60 total big league innings between the last two seasons, during which he’s pitched to a 5.46 ERA and 4.17 FIP. That FIP is just about league average, though, for what that’s worth, but he’s more or less been pitching exclusively in relief.
Lamet, 30, is controllable through arbitration next year (he made $4.8 million this year) if you’re willing to tender him a contract. Even if you grab him and he’s fantastic down the stretch, are you going to tender him a contract knowing that he might get upwards of $6 million next year? If there’s a chance he could still start, that might be worth it. But since you can’t even option him to the minors if he struggles, that’s a pretty tall ask.
But, hey, that’d be a question for another day, right? Why not try to grab him anyway, and see what happens?
I wouldn’t be surprised if the Cubs do. They don’t have the top waiver priority, though, for what it’s worth. Because of their recent winning ways, the Cubs have only the 6th worst record in baseball, and priority goes to the worst record in the same league as the team doing the waiving. So that would be the Nationals (who should totally claim him), the Pirates (who should totally claim him), and then the Cubs.
