The Blue Jays have signed Casey Lawrence to a minor league contract, per an announcement from the York Revolution of the independent Atlantic League. Lawrence had signed with the indie ball club in March but is now returning to the affiliated ranks. He has been assigned to Triple-A Buffalo.
Lawrence might be a familiar name to some Jays fans. The right-hander made his MLB debut with Toronto in April 2017 but was claimed off waivers by the Mariners about a month thereafter. He went on to log a decent number of innings out of the Seattle bullpen from 2017-18. Altogether, Lawrence compiled a 6.64 ERA over 38 appearances (including two starts) in the big leagues over that two-year stretch.
Seattle granted Lawrence his release following the 2018 season so he could pursue an opportunity in Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball. He spent much of the following year with a minor league affiliate of NPB’s Hiroshima Carp before returning stateside in 2020. Lawrence spent last season at the Twins alternate training site but didn’t get a big league call. The 33-year-old will look to work his way back to the majors for the organization with which he began his career.
The human pitching machine himself
Ah yes, the Manoah replacement
We are agreed on this one….sign Laurence to fill a whole by promoting Manoah.
ah another guy in the 2017 bullpen. We used I think 47 different pitchers in the pen which is ridiculous.
Only 33 pitchers in 2017, counting starters too. They’ll pass that this season by next month.
That’s what happens when you only have 2 decent starters and they can usually not go more than 5 innings.