The Blue Jays announced that they have selected left-hander Eric Lauer to their roster. To open a 40-man spot for him, Casey Lawrence has been designated for assignment. Prior to the official announcement, Mitch Bannon of The Athletic relayed that Lauer was no longer scheduled to start for Triple-A Buffalo. Shi Davidi of Sportsnet reported that Lauer was on his way to join the Jays.
Lauer, 30 in June, signed a minor league deal with the Jays in the offseason. He’s been pitching out of the Buffalo rotation so far this year, having logged 24 innings over five starts. He has allowed 4.50 earned runs per nine with a 20.6% strikeout rate and 5.9% walk rate.
The Jays need some innings, whether that’s from a starter or a bulk guy pitching behind an opener. Left-hander Easton Lucas took a rotation spot earlier in the year when Max Scherzer landed on the injured list. Lucas had two good starts and two awful ones, getting optioned to Buffalo last week.
The Jays planned to use some off-days in the schedule to have a four-man rotation for a while, though Mother Nature interrupted there. A rainout in the Bronx on Saturday led to a Sunday doubleheader, with Kevin Gausman and Chris Bassitt starting those two games. After an off-day on Monday, Bowden Francis started against the Red Sox last night. José Berríos could have started on regular rest today but the club would have needed someone to start Thursday’s game.
The club grabbed Lawrence off waivers on Monday to give them a long man on the heels of the doubleheader. He was needed immediately, as Francis only lasted three innings yesterday. After Dillon Tate and Mason Fluharty got four and six outs respectively, Lawrence came in and absorbed 2 2/3 innings of long relief. Lauer logged five innings in each of his four most recent starts for the Bisons, so he will ideally give the club some length today. The last of those starts was on Thursday, so he’ll be on five days of rest today.
It’s unclear if he’ll stick on the roster beyond today’s game. The Jays have another off-day on Monday, so they could go back down to four starters for a couple of turns. Lucas was optioned on April 21st, so he’ll be beyond the 15-day minimum by next week and could be recalled. Jake Bloss has also been in better form of late, with his two most recent Triple-A starts resulting in 12 strikeouts and no earned runs allowed. That could get Lauer bumped off the roster, depending on how things go in today’s game. It’s also possible Lauer holds a rotation spot for a few turns while Lucas and Bloss stay in Buffalo as depth.
Either way, Lauer will be making his first major league appearance in quite some time. He had a solid run with the Padres and Brewers earlier in his career. From 2018 to 2022, he had a 4.11 ERA over 550 innings. His 22.1% strikeout rate and 8.7% walk rate were both around league average. But in 2023, a shoulder impingement sent him to the injured list for most of the year. He was only able to toss 46 2/3 innings with a 6.56 ERA. He split 2024 between Triple-A clubs of the Astros and Pirates as well as the Kia Tigers of the KBO League, with an ERA near 5.00 in all of those stops.
He is out of options and can’t be easily sent back down to the minors if this is just a spot start situation. If he’s later designated for assignment and passed through waivers unclaimed, he would have the right to reject an outright assignment and elect free agency. Players gain that right when they have a previous career outright or at least three years of service time, with Lauer meeting both criteria.
Lawrence heads into DFA limbo for the fourth time this year, the first three being with the Mariners. He was called up by Seattle whenever they needed a fresh arm to cover long relief innings. Since he is out of options, he was designated for assignment a few days after being called up in each instance. The first two DFAs resulted in him clearing waivers and returning to the team, though the Jays claimed him on the third try.
Photo courtesy of Kim Klement Neitzel, Imagn Images
Poor Casey Lawrence
Reynaldo’s: He’s closing in on Jesse Chavez.
They should really set a minimum on number of days a player has to remain on the 40 man roster once they are put on it. This type of roster manipulation with players on the fringe that really have no other options just doesn’t pass the smell test.
Doubt the players or the teams are concerned about it. Each benefits as the team gets a fresh arm and the player gets some MLB salary and service time. It’s a win-win
How is getting one day of service time and not knowing where you are going to be at least once a week a WIN for the player?
I smell a plethora of opportunity for AAAA types to continue to get MLB time as opposed to being trapped on a AAA roster all season.
But is it better for more players to be jerked around or fewer players to get real opportunities?
I think every player that gets optioned would love the opportunity to be available to any teams MLB roster prior to demotion.
Has anyone seen this poor performance and lack of quality depth out of a Shaprio Atkins rotation before? Is there a pattern? Deja Vu? Using guys whose career is basically done?
Its only going to get worse as the year rolls on unless some quality acqusitions are made or Scherzer and Manoah get miracles.. A manager can only do so much with bargain basement waiver claims.
Every year for 9 years theyve been preaching organizational depth while delivering 0 depth both on the pitching and position player sides. This is the first year since they took over where I feel they have some positional player depth mind you it’s a lot of middling depth that was only acquired cause there sell off last year. But yet for the 3rd year in a row we’re going to a 4 man rotation within a month of the season with 1 pitching prospect to boast about who has only just gotten his feet wet in pro ball like 2weeks ago.
Anyways I see this team being able to fight for a wild card spot but only if everything breaks right and they can go out there and get a decent pitcher soon to fill in for max as he’s never coming back
Also if I have to hear 1 more time how they don’t know what to do with Rodriguez and how he is still adjusting to mlb I’m gonna go crazy. The guy was signed to a huge contract like a year and a half go pick a lane
I agree, sort of.
Lets face it. All MLB teams run into problems with pitching depth and have to reach out for a waiver claim now and then.
The problem with the Jays is their drafting/ player development is terrible. Right now they have Bloss (who was acquired in a trade) as the one AAA starter who might actually be more than a live warm body. And he is not really ready.
They have one pitcher on their 25 man roster that they drafted (Fluharty – you cant count Hoffman). Thats unacceptable. .
And that problem falls mostly on Shapiro, Atkins and every assistant GM. Not squarely, as some blame should be on ownership. Ownership took this direction after hiring JP Ricciardi.
If we examine the last 25 years the drafting/development has been a disaster. No Mel Queen to save Romero or Manoah like he did Halladay. At least Gord Ash’s era had good drafts and development. The philosophy hasn’t worked. Even during Anthopoulos’ run where there were plenty of misses.
Another day, another Casey Lawrence article.
Of all the “big spenders “ are the Jays the worst run franchise?
Yes
Only reason management is still around is is because Shapiro ran the huge stadium renovations while also for some weird reason trying to turn the stadium into a business meeting place as they’ve released a few adds targeting businesses saying how great a place jays games are for work functions/meetings. Or trying to make the outfield into a bar/party scene while charging 22 dollars for a beer
The Angels have gone below the Jays payroll in the last few seasons, and are now more of a mid range spender, but they have been big spenders over the last decade and have no playoff appearances to show for it.
I would argue the Angels are worse. At least the Jays have managed to get to some playoff games and been reasonably competitive.
Also, what have the Cubs got for all their spending? They play in a somewhat weak division, spend similar to Toronto, and rarely see the postseason.
But yes, overall, the Jays have gotten very poor bang for their buck.
I can’t remember what a playoff game is.
A playoff game is the thing the Leafs tend to lose
No BlueJays playoff game [again] in 2025.
The Jays are a mess.
Jerry Dipoto on line 2.