Royals sign Dinelson Lamet to minor league deal

He received Cy Young votes once!

The Royals announced they have signed right-handed pitcher Dinelson Lamet to a minor league deal. The 32-year-old has played parts of seven seasons in the big leagues with a career 4.63 ERA in 367 innings with the Padres, Rockies, Red Sox, and Dodgers.

Lamet originally came up with the Padres and after undergoing Tommy John surgery in 2018, he showed flashes of brilliance as a starter. In the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, he posted a 2.09 ERA with 12.1 strikeouts-per-nine-innings, earning Cy Young votes. He was limited to just 47 innings in 2021 with a UCL sprain, and was let go early in 2022. Since then he has bounced around throwing in three games for the Dodgers this year with a 4.82 ERA in Triple-A for them before he opted out of his deal in June.

Lamet’s velocity is way down from his prime, with his fastball averaging 93 mph. Last year he relied more on his sinker and slider, although opponents hit .429 off his sinker. The slider was far more effective with a 36.8 percent whiff rate and a .189 expected batting average.

The Royals are searching for answers in their bullpen, and it is not unreasonable to think that Lamet could turn his career around as a reliever, particularly if he can rely on that slider more. Most likely this transaction turns into nothing, but all over baseball, teams are taking freely available talent like this, and developing shutdown relievers. If the Royals want to get back to the post-season, they’ll need to find some relievers of their own.