Former Blue Jay Jake Lamb retires

A former Toronto Blue Jay has called it a career.

At the end of November, Jake Lamb retired via friend and former teammate Archie Bradley. The third baseman played just 12 games with the Blue Jays in 2021, but his professional career spanned from 2012 until 2025.

Selected 213th overall in the 2012 draft by the Arizona Diamondbacks, the Seattle-born player spent parts of three seasons in the minor leagues before making his big league debut in 2014. Lamb only played 37 games, hitting four home runs in 133 plate appearances. The following season, Lamb played 107 games, hitting six home runs in 390 plate appearances.

It wasn’t until 2016 that he had an above-average season, hitting 29 home runs in 594 plate appearances in 151 games with the Diamondbacks. In 2017, Lamb hit a career-high 30 home runs in 635 plate appearances, earning an All-Star Game nod. Unfortunately, Lamb never hit those heights again, hitting just 12 home runs in 464 plate appearances in 2018 and 2019.

During the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, Lamb played 18 games with the Diamondbacks before being designated for assignment in September 2020. He then signed with the Oakland Athletics to end the year, playing 13 games.

This began the journeyman portion of Lamb’s career. The 2021 season saw stops with the Chicago White Sox and Blue Jays, as well as a Spring Training with the Atlanta Braves. In 2022, Lamb played for the Los Angeles Dodgers and his hometown Seattle Mariners. In 2023, he spent a portion of the season with the New York Yankees’ Triple-A team, as well as the Los Angeles Angels, his final Major League Baseball action.

Although Lamb’s MLB career was over at this point, he played the 2024 season with the Pittsburgh Pirates Triple-A team, and the 2025 season with the San Francisco Giants before being released on Jun. 2 of this year.

Lamb’s pitstop in Toronto was a short one. The Jays claimed the third baseman off waivers in early September, and he slashed .129/.256/.290 with a home run in 39 plate appearances. That home run came in a 22-7 blowout of the Baltimore Orioles on Sep. 12, 2021.

Throughout the 2021 season, the Blue Jays were looking for a third baseman to finally replace Josh Donaldson, who was traded in 2018. Lamb played 72 innings at the position, with the majority of the innings going to Sanitago Espinal and Cavan Biggio. Kevin Smith, Breyvic Valera, and Joe Panik were the other players to get action at the hot corner.