Dinelson Lamet was a solid late-season addition for the Rockies in 2022

Welcome to the 2022 edition of Ranking the Rockies, where we take a look back at every player to log playing time for the Rockies in 2022. The purpose of this list is to provide a snapshot of the player in context. The “Ranking” is an organizing principle that’s drawn from Baseball Reference’s WAR (rWAR). It’s not something the staff debated. We’ll begin with the player with the lowest rWAR and end up with the player with the highest.

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No. 18, Dinelson Lamet: 0.4 rWAR

Right-handed pitcher Dinelson Lamet was a promising starter for the first few seasons of his career with the San Diego Padres, and even placed fourth in Cy Young Award voting in 2020. However, an injury-riddled 2021 season derailed his progress. He was bouncing back and forth from the minors to the big league team and operating largely out of the Padres bullpen with limited success. In 12 ¹⁄₃ innings spread across 13 appearances with the Padres Lamet had a 9.49 ERA.

When Lamet was sent to the Milwaukee Brewers at the trade deadline as part of the package that brought big name closer Josh Hader to San Diego, it looked like he might get a new lease on his career. The Brewers designated him for assignment before he threw a single pitch with their organization.

The Colorado Rockies—having seen Lamet plenty of times during his tenure with the Padres—wasted no time bringing him into the fold by claiming him and activating him to the big league roster on August 5th. Lamet made his first appearance for the Rockies on August 9th and would continue to be a regular staple out of the bullpen for the rest of the season. Lamet was one of the Rockies’ top five most frequently used relievers during the final two months and change of the 2022 season.

Dinelson Lamet had a strong first month with the Rockies operating out of the bullpen. Lamet only gave up earned runs in two of his eight outings over 8 ²⁄₃ innings of work, and only gave up two earned runs total during the month. He held opposing batters to a line of .161/.278/.290 while tallying three walks to nine strikeouts.

Two bad outings in September and October marred an otherwise strong final month of the season for Lamet. On September 11th against the Arizona Diamondbacks he gave up two earned runs on a walk and two hits over one inning. On October 1st against the Los Angeles Dodgers he had his worst outing in purple. Entering the game in the bottom of the seventh, Lamet walked three straight batters before being pulled. His replacement walked in two of those batters and allowed a third to score on a sacrifice fly. All three runs were credited to Lamet, causing his ERA to bloat.

Prior to the October 1st outing, Lamet had an ERA of 3.86 and a FIP of 2.68 in nine appearances during the month of September. After that outing his ERA for the month ballooned to 6.75, but his FIP stayed a reasonable 3.65 to more accurately show how he was performing. Lamet had a chance to rebound in his final outing of the year on October 4th and did so admirably. He worked two complete shutout innings while allowing just one hit and striking out four batters.

Overall Lamet performed much better when he arrived in Colorado. He gave up fewer hits, walked fewer batters, and notched more strikeouts. His total numbers for the season are skewed due to his rough start in San Diego, but his numbers with the Rockies paint a much clearer image of his season and his value.

Dinelson Lamet is entering his final year of arbitration and will be a free agent after the 2023 season. Next year will be his chance to prove he has gotten past his injuries and can deliver on the promise of his first few major league seasons. If his rebound after joining the Rockies is any indication, he might be able to do just that.