Former Arizona Diamondbacks third baseman Jake Lamb is set to join the franchise’s player development staff, according to a report by MLB’s Steve Gilbert on Monday.
Lamb, 35, will reportedly work mostly “with position players in the organization” and also have his fair share of face time with major league-level players. He announced his retirement from baseball on Friday.
He was a 2017 National League All-Star for the D-backs during a season in which he slashed .248/.357/.487 with an eventual career-high 30 home runs, 133 hits and 87 walks.
In six seasons plus 18 games in a COVID-19-affected 2020 season with Arizona, Lamb produced a .239 batting average, .329 on-base percentage and slugged .433. He hit 81 home runs and knocked in 303 runs for a cumulative 7.5 bWAR before signing with the then-Oakland Athletics on Sept. 14, 2020.
Lamb played 127 games between stints with the Athletics (2020), Chicago White Sox (2021), Toronto Blue Jays (2021), Los Angeles Dodgers (2022), Seattle Mariners (2022) and Los Angeles Angels (2023).
He was designated for assignment by the Angels on June 30, 2023 and last saw professional baseball action with the San Francisco Giants’ Triple-A Sacramento River Cats on May 31 last season.
The University of Washington product was selected by the D-backs during the 2012 MLB June Amateur Draft and made his big league debut for Arizona on Aug. 7, 2014.
Lamb once credited five-time Silver Slugger Paul Goldschmidt — D-backs first baseman from 2011-18 linked to the team for a potential return — for getting him out of “a bad place.”
