The Rockies have placed right-hander Justin Lawrence on waivers, according to a report from Jon Heyman of the New York Post. Notably, that does not mean the righty has been designated for assignment, and Lawrence can continue to workout with the Rockies and pitch in spring games while the waiver process runs its course. With that being said, Lawrence’s placement on waivers is irrevocable, meaning the right-hander will land with a new team in the coming days if any rival clubs put in a claim on his services.
Lawrence, 30, has parts of four MLB seasons under his belt since he debuted with the Rockies back in 2021. After struggling badly in a brief cup of coffee with the club during the 2021 campaign, Lawrence posted lackluster results in 2022 despite solid peripherals. While his 5.70 ERA that year was well below-average, a 3.39 FIP, a 3.54 xERA, and a 3.63 SIERA all suggested Lawrence had pitched much better than his surface level production would’ve suggested. He was a victim of a low 63.7% strand rate and an inflated .350 BABIP, but his strong 25.1% strikeout rate combined with a 50.8% groundball rate made clear the bones of a quality MLB reliever were present.
The right-hander then proved to be exactly that sort of quality MLB reliever the very next year, as he enjoyed a breakout season in 2023 at the age of 28. In 75 innings of work, Lawrence posted a 3.72 ERA with a matching 3.76 FIP while picking up 11 saves during a season where he shared the closer role with struggling veteran Pierce Johnson. Lawrence’s ERA that season may not jump off the page, but when factoring in the inflated offensive environment Rockies pitchers face at Coors Field he was actually well above average as demonstrated by his 134 ERA+. Lawrence’s peripherals more or less matched his work in the 2022 campaign, with a 23.9% strikeout rate, an 11% walk rate, and a 48.5% groundball rate. Entering 2024, it seemed as though the right-hander had a solid foundation for MLB success from which he could build off of going forward.
Unfortunately, that’s not how things worked out. Lawrence had the worst season of his career in 2024 as he surrendered a 6.49 ERA in 59 2/3 innings of work while his peripheral numbers regressed nearly across the board. Lawrence saw his walk rate tick up to 11.8% last year, while his strikeout rate plummeted to just 16.1%. Just four pitchers in the majors last year had a lower K-BB% than Lawrence, and in conjunction with the BABIP and strand rate related issues that are common for pitchers calling Coors Field home, it’s hardly a surprise that the right-hander struggled badly with metrics that mostly supported his poor performance including a 5.63 FIP, a 6.25 xERA, and a 4.73 SIERA.
In his first few outings this spring, Lawrence hasn’t looked much better. Spring results always need to be taken with a grain of salt, but the right-hander has looked wild with three walks and two hit batters against two strikeouts across three innings of work. That seems to have been enough for the Rockies, who expressed a desire to deal Lawrence this winter, to pull the plug. In doing so, the club opens up playing time for younger relief arms like Angel Chivilli and Jeff Criswell amid an noncompetitive season and could save the sum of Lawrence’s $975K arbitration salary if he’s plucked off waivers by another organization.
From when Lawrence is officially placed on waivers, rival clubs will have 48 hours to place a claim for his services. If he goes unclaimed, he’ll remain with the Rockies. The righty could be outrighted off the club’s 40-man roster at that point and stashed in the minors as depth, but Colorado would not necessarily have to do so and could just keep him in their big league bullpen going forward as well.
I don’t want to be that guy but WHO?
Click on his name and you’ll see he’s been in Colorado’s bullpen for parts of the last 4 seasons. He was even their closer for a month or two in 2023.
Ask me how I know that the Rockies have fallen on hard times.
I know it was rhetoric but….
I don’t think anyone will be asking you anything going by your lack of willingness to click and scan Lawrence’s B-REF page.
Or you can read that in the article. Half a dozen one….
In his defense, MLB doesn’t make it easy for the casual fan to get to know ANY of the Rockies. They are never on ESPN or Fox and get maybe 2-3 MLB Network games per year. I agree that all the info is on his BR page, but why would you go there to check out a completely unknown player to you? MLB needs to get better at marketing EVERY team the same way they market the Yankees, Dodgers, Red Sox, Braves, Mets, and the rest of the preferred teams.
And don’t say it is because they are bad, because the Rockies got very few national games when they were good.. They had a total of 10 ESPN Sunday Night games in the 31 year history of the team.
Good points, hiflew. If MLB won’t, each team could be marketing their players. Some humor, AMA’s, off the cuff TikToks and Youtube vids…. it shouldn’t take much for a team to do so.
Hiflew makes good points about marketing and TV. Frankly, MLB is terrible at marketing their sport. They do these fan feedback surveys (that suck terribly) and then do the opposite of what their fans want.
MLB has had a strong anti-marketing campaign for decades. It should be embarrassing, but somehow they don’t see it.
“We have steroids in the game. It’s awful.”
“The game is slow and boring. Stay away!”
“Small-market teams can’t compete. Why would you support them?”
Sadly you were that guy
The writer literally links the player to his baseball reference page. It doesn’t get any simpler than that…
In his defense, who clicks on the BR page of an unknown player that often? If I see a story about an obscure young reliever from the Twins, Mariners, Blue Jay, or just about AL team that I don’t watch much I don’t try to find out about them. I just say, man, there is another one that I don’t know and move on.
Who doesn’t know who player is and instead of clicking on the BR page to find out about him or saying nothing instead decides to post a comment saying “WHO?”
Fair point. I was just trying to be the devil’s advocate there.
I guess I’m the weird one who almost always clicks on the guys I don’t know. I didn’t have to click on Justin Lawrence, though. I’m a little sad he didn’t fully figure it out for the Rox. His delivery and his stuff are nasty, he just doesn’t have any command.
Turkey,
The “weird one” is the guy who doesn’t click on the name and posts WHO?
That guy? Willful ignorance guy?
yikes, a quick eyeball of his Baseball Savant page shows a lot of single digit percentiles (K rate, BB rate, xERA) with only one stat above average (GB rate, which i guess is a prerequisite for all Rockies pitchers).
I see a minor league assignment in his future, can’t see anyone seeing something worth mining out of that Rocky Mtn ore.
Whoa!
Presumably he’s out of options.
BTW, does anyone get a long cup of coffee?
@Blueskies….I often get one. But as far as MLB metaphors go, it’s elusive.
It’s an oxymoron, which goes nicely with a side of coleslaw.
I had a long cup of coffee once, but then they kicked me out for loitering…
I once got a long little doggie, but then I had to yippie I oh cai-yay
kinda like an announcer calling a pitch down low. either word on their own would suffice yet I hear it so often
Long can be interpreted both as a period of time or the shape/size of something. In regards to coffee, I tend to describe it in terms of color or strength.
I’m seeing a similar profile in Lawrence to former Twins pitcher Jesse Crain. Crain had moments, but was mostly middling in MN w/a low K rate and erratic usage. He went to the White Sox and was borderline elite until his shoulder blew up.
A change of scenery and a different deployment could be massive for Lawrence. A team like Milwaukee, Minnesota, Texas, the Cubs or Cleveland are very suitable fits. Curious to see where he lands.
The Rockies are a smart organization — waiving a guy before he suffers the dreaded oblique injury.
As a Rockies fan (unfortunately) smart isn’t the word.
Waivers like this are rare nowadays
I already forget the old trade deadline system with the waivers so people like Justin verlander could get traded at the end of august
ERA is almost double in Colorado than on the road and has held opponents to a sub .700 ops away from Coors. Might be a decent depth option elsewhere.
Anyone who watches the Rockies regularly, which doesn’t include most of the commenters here, know that Lawrence has always been a work in progress. His non-standard method of throwing got him high velocity, and once in awhile it would accidently end up going over the plate. But if he tried to control it, then he became very hittable, or he hit the batter. I think the experiment is over.
The one time I want Stearns to go bargain bin hunting. I’ve always been high on Lawrence. He is extremely underated. He would be the Mets third best reliever right now between Minter (2) and Stanek (4). His unorthodox delivery can be extremely valuable
Monfort can afford the $975K, relative to the Bryant contract.
It’s not about his salary, it’s about the roster spot. The Rockies have a lot of young relievers that are at least have the potential to be better than Lawrence. Lawrence basically is who he is now. He has one nasty pitch when it works, but the rest of his arsenal is average at best. And when the batter knows you only have one great pitch, he can lay off it and just wait for the other stuff and mash it.
The savings here is so minimal too. The article says if he’s picked up they save the sum of Lawrence’s $975K arbitration salary, but that roster spot would go to someone else who is going to make league minimum at $760K so it’s really more like saving $215K on the MLB payroll.
Agreed that it’s about the roster spot and getting someone who is not out of options a try in the pen
Rox are loaded with big arms coming up. Lawrence was once one of them but was unplayable last year and should have been cut long ago.
Waivers have always been quasi-trade deadline within the season. No surprise there.
Look at his splits, he is much better away from coors field, sidearm pitcher hitting 100 mph worth a flyer for a team needing bullpen help.
100 mph? averages just over 95 and sits about 59 percentile on FB velo. I guess we can round up all pitchers to the next closest multiple of ten. lol.
best of luck at PNC, I agree his away splits were better… we’ll see if he breaks camp with the Bucs but the lack of options will likely doom him.