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Looking at Peter Lambert’s Breakout 2026 Season

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Looking at Peter Lambert’s Breakout 2026 Season

Originally posted on New Baseball Media
By Chris Studley | Last updated Oct 19, 2026 12:35 PM ET

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Our look into the best breakout stories from the 2026 Major League Baseball season continues with Astros pitcher Peter Lambert.

There’s an interesting theme around the 2026 MLB Postseason. Several teams that made the playoffs had individuals who made it overseas and turned that success into Major League success. Munetaka Murakami, Anthony Kay, Foster Griffin, and Nick Martinez are four examples of that. Peter Lambert, who wasn’t even given an MLB deal this past winter, can also be added to that list.

Return from Japan

It’s hard to believe that Peter Lambert was just a Minor League signing made by Houston earlier in the year.

A former second-round pick by the Rockies way back in 2015 out of high school, Lambert struggled to find his footing at the MLB level over his first four seasons. He’s far from the only young pitcher to struggle in Colorado, a place not known for its pitcher-friendly confines.

However, a lack of swing-and-miss stuff proved to be a real problem.

Lambert never had a K/9 above 7.3 in any of his four seasons in Colorado. After the 2024 season, the right-hander went to Japan and pitched for the Tokyo Yakult Swallows, playing with former Major Leaguers, as well as current big-leaguer Munetaka Murakami.

He joined the Astros as a non-roster invitee for 2026 Spring Training, joining Ryan Weiss and Tatsuya Imai as imports from overseas. However, Lambert didn’t make the club out of camp, re-signed on a Minor League deal, and eventually joined the club later in April. Once he did, Lambert became one of the most effective pitchers for the club.

The now-29-year-old posted a sub-4.00 ERA and struck out 154 over 155 innings. Among the 140 primary starting pitchers with 100+ innings thrown this season, Lambert’s opposing batter wOBA of .301 was 49th-best.

A new pitch mix

Again, as you’d expect, there were some tweaks made here & there. For one, the arm angle dropped, as Lambert went from a 53-degree angle — near over-the-top — to roughly 49 degrees on average. Not an astronomical change but one that showed up on the sheets.

Second, positioning on the mound. Lambert sat in the middle of the rubber with Colorado in 2024.

(via New Baseball Media)

Two years later, Lambert was more on the third-base side, and created more deception with how he loads and angles towards hitter.

(via New Baseball Media)

The above GIF, which showed a swing-and-miss on a 95 MPH fastball to Tristan Peters, is a good illustration of what was working for Lambert in 2026. Looking at how that fastball played against left-handed hitters, the right-hander was able to induce a lot of swing-and-misses both up and in.

(via New Baseball Media)

Again, comparing it to 2024, it’s a night-and-day difference:

(via New Baseball Media)

What’s even more interesting is that Lambert’s pitch mix did change — but just not as dramatically, compared to other individuals who came back from Japan and/or Korea. He still used mainly the same pitches seen in his first MLB tour. However, fewer four-seamers, more sinkers (interestingly enough), and re-finding the sweeper that was used a good amount in 2023.

(via New Baseball Media)

Becoming an important piece

I don’t think many people expected Lambert to be the big pitching acquisition made by the Astros last winter. But that’s how it worked.

Houston came into the 2025-26 offseason down several pitchers thanks to injury. Now-former general manager Dana Brown sought to plug holes by trying to find hidden gems. He signed reliever Nate Pearson with the thought that he could be a starter. That didn’t happen,

Ryan Weiss, brought over from Korea, didn’t work out either. The Astros are also “stuck” with Tatsuya Imai, a talented pitcher from the NPB who was the top foreign pitcher to come over to the Majors last winter on paper. However, he had a nightmare-ish first season in the Majors.

Turns out, Lambert was the real gem.

Looking ahead

If Lambert returns to the Astros in 2027, he’ll have significantly more expectations given how well he performed in 2026. A decade after he was once a top prospect in the Colorado system, he’s found a groove at the big-league level.

This article first appeared on New Baseball Media and was syndicated with permission.

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