Lamet on IL with forearm inflammation

SAN DIEGO -- It's a long season, and baseball, as a sport, can lend itself to quite a bit of game-to-game variance. On a given Saturday night, for instance, the last-place D-backs, losers of 24 straight on the road, can beat the contending Padres, winners of eight straight at home, 10-1, at Petco Park. It happens.

For the Padres, that wasn’t the concerning part. Here’s the concerning part:

Right-hander Dinelson Lamet walked off the mound after only 2 1/3 innings, his early exit the result of “fatigue in the forearm area,” manager Jayce Tingler said. A day later, Lamet was placed on the 10-day injured list with right forearm inflammation. Right-hander James Norwood recalled from Triple-A El Paso.

“We’re going to use these 10 days, we’ll kind of see how it goes, see if we can get some of that inflammation out of there with a little bit of treatment and work,” Tingler said on Sunday. “… We’re optimistic on some things, and we’re hopeful that with 10 days down and some treatment, hopefully, we’re back on the saddle. But the next couple days, we’ll wait and see how the forearm responds to some treatment.”

Lamet's 2020 season came to an end in late September due to a right UCL strain. He noted that at the time doctors told him that the early shutdown would help him avoid Tommy John surgery.

This season, Lamet's buildup was slow, and he hasn't thrown more than five innings or 81 pitches in any of his 11 outings. He endured one setback in April -- an early exit because of right forearm tightness -- but he returned promptly after a 10-day stint on the injured list.

Lamet has been solid since, albeit a bit limited. He entered Saturday with a 2.81 ERA, and he’d begun to resemble the pitcher who dominated in 2020, en route to a fourth-place finish in National League Cy Young Award voting.

Lamet had allowed four runs over 2 1/3 innings when Tingler emerged from the Padres' dugout accompanied by a team trainer. Tingler had noticed Lamet having issues with his slider grip an inning prior. Then, in the third, Lamet’s velocity started dropping, too.

“When you don’t have the feel for it, sometimes your mechanics change and you start doing things different,” Tingler said on Saturday. “That was a little bit more of the precautionary concern -- if [mechanics] start breaking down.”

Lamet’s early exit came in his first start since MLB began its crackdown on foreign substances, which are prohibited but can enhance a pitcher’s grip on the baseball. Tingler said he didn’t think the two were related, noting simply, “I don’t think it’s anything there.”

Should Lamet miss extended time moving forward, it raises two possibilities. First, it seems possible that left-hander Ryan Weathers would be recalled to take Lamet's rotation spot. Weathers was optioned to the Minors 10 days ago, after a solid start to his rookie season. He'd posted a 2.47 ERA with a 1.01 WHIP in 14 games (eight starts). Weathers would be one obvious solution to fill a rotation void.

“He’s absolutely an option, yes,” Tingler said on Sunday.

The other solution, of course, is a trade. That option is probably on the table whether Lamet is healthy or not. There’s just more than a month until the July 30 Trade Deadline, and the Padres could use another arm to help ease the burden on their weary bullpen. And remember: When it comes to acquiring pitching, general manager A.J. Preller isn’t one to skimp.