Jake

Lamb

The 33-year-old slugger was released by the Pirates early last week to give him the chance to explore opportunities elsewhere. Lamb surveyed the open market and ultimately decided that his best opportunity was to remain with the Pirates. He has hit .289/.380/.416 with four homers and 31 RBI in 234 plate appearances at Triple-A Indianapolis this season.

Baa. Lamb had an opt-out in his minor league contract with the Pirates, so the club decided to grant him his release to pursue another opportunity instead of promoting him to the majors. The 33-year-old veteran slugger has appeared in 723 contests in the big leagues since 2014. He was hitting .289/.380/.416 with four homers and 31 RBI across 234 plate appearances this season over 55 games for Triple-A Indianapolis.

McKinney was acquired in a trade with the Yankees in December after playing 48 games for New York this season. The 29-year-old has a career slash line of .209/.284/.390. The seven other players invited to major league spring training were INF Sergio Alcantara, OF Gilberto Celestino, RHP Ben Heller, INF/OF Jake Lamb, LHP Michael Plassmeyer, RHP Ryder Ryan, and RHP Hunter Stratton.

Lamb will be a non-roster invitee to spring training, which will give him a chance to make the Pirates, but the freedom to find another opportunity if he’s unable to do so. In 2023, Lamb hit just .216/.259/.353 with two homers and five RBI in 51 at-bats during his time with the Angels before being cut and signing a minor league deal with the Yankees. In 51 games at Triple-A, he hit .269/.396/.427 with six home runs and a 19.8 percent strikeout rate. He remains a longshot to make the Pirates Opening Day roster.

The 32-year-old slugger was cut loose by the Angels at the beginning of the month. He hit just .216/.259/.353 with two homers and five RBI in 51 at-bats during his time with the Angels.

Lamb passed through waivers unclaimed and has been cut loose by the Angels to presumably pursue an opportunity somewhere else. The 32-year-old will likely have to settle for a minor league contract after posting a .612 OPS in a bench role this season with Los Angeles.

With Victor Mederos requiring a spot on the 40-man roster on Friday, someone needed to get the boot, and unfortunately that target landed on Lamb on Friday. The 32-year-old has hit .216/.259/.353 with two homers and five RBI in 51 at-bats at the big league level this season. He could attract some interest on the waiver wire.

Lamb has been jettisoned to the minors to open up a roster spot for the Angels ahead of Friday’s series opener against the Guardians. The 32-year-old slugger has two homers in 18 games this season in a reserve role for Los Angeles.

Someone will need to be demoted once Jared Walsh rejoins the Angels, and it doesn’t look like Lamb is going to make it a tough call. He’s hitting .222/.282/.250 in 39 plate appearances.

Trout and fellow veteran Anthony Rendon will take a seat on Marathon Monday at Fenway Park with Brett Phillips and Gio Urshela drawing starts in center field and third base, respectively. Jake Lamb is at designated hitter in this one with rookie Zach Neto in the leadoff spot. It’s an 11:10 EST first pitch in Boston, so fantasy managers in weekly leagues should remember to set their full lineups soon.