The Cubs should claim Dinelson Lamet on DFA waivers

Among several major deals made before Tuesday’s trade deadline, the Brewers sent Josh Hader to the Padres for Taylor Rogers, Dinelson Lamet, Esteury Ruiz and minor leaguer Robert Gasser.

Wednesday, the Brewers designated Lamet for assignment.

One Brewers beat writer called it a “head-scratcher”:

There’s a bit more from Curt Hogg here; suffice to say it’s still a bit confusing. Brewers MLB.com beat writer Adam McCalvy has a bit more of an explanation:

Lamet is 30 and his career has been one long injury list:

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This year, Lamet has been in the Padres bullpen and has made 13 appearances in two separate stints (along with 17 minor league appearances this year in which he posted a 1.93 ERA and 1.286 WHIP), and the results have been pretty bad: 9.49 ERA, 2.027 WHIP. That included giving up two runs to the Cubs in one relief inning May 9 in San Diego.

Lamet has had some previous success as a starter. From 2017-20 he posted a 3.76 ERA and 1.143 WHIP in 47 starts for the Padres, with a 112 ERA+. He had 2.3 bWAR in the 2020 pandemic season.

There’s really nothing to lose here if the Cubs claimed Lamet on DFA waivers. Send him to Mesa and put him in the Pitch Lab and see if the Cubs can reclaim what Lamet was from 2017-20. Perhaps they could get a couple of decent years out of him as a starter. Even with the high ERA and WHIP this year, he’s still striking out 11.7 per nine innings. If it doesn’t work out, they could simply release him.

Lamet is making $4.775 million this year, so the Cubs would be on the hook for about $1.8 million on the deal. I suppose they could wait until he clears waivers; in that case they’d owe only a pro-rated portion of the minimum salary, about $260,000. But if they do that, any team could sign Lamet for that much.

I think it’s worth the chance to put in a waiver claim.

What say you?