April 22: Seattle announced on Tuesday that Lawrence cleared waivers and was outrighted back to Triple-A Tacoma. According to the MiLB.com transaction log, he elected free agency. There’s a decent chance he’ll re-sign with the Mariners on another minor league deal, as he did after electing free agency last week.
April 20: The Mariners announced this morning that they’ve designated right-hander Casey Lawrence for assignment. Right-hander Sauryn Lao was selected to the roster to replace Lawrence on the 40-man and active rosters.
Lawrence, 37, is a journeyman who has pitched in parts of five MLB seasons. After signing with the Blue Jays as an undrafted free agent back in 2010, the right-hander spent years climbing up the minor league ladder before finally reaching the majors during the 2017 season. He struggled to a 6.64 ERA with a 5.08 FIP in 78 2/3 innings of work for the Jays and Mariners over the next two years before heading overseas to pitch for Nippon Professional Baseball’s Hiroshima Carp in 2019. Lawrence posted a 4.80 ERA in 110 2/3 innings of work for the Carp and did not pitch professionally during the 2020 season.
He resurfaced in Toronto during the 2021 season and has oscillated between the majors and Triple-A in the years since then, with a 6.62 ERA and 6.12 FIP across 50 1/3 innings between the Blue Jays, Cardinals, and Mariners. His most recent stint in Seattle has seen the right-hander post five innings of three-run (two earned) ball, though he’s failed to strike out any of the 20 batters he’s faced. The Mariners will have one week to work out a trade involving Lawrence or pass him through waivers, and if he goes unclaimed he’ll have the option to either accept and outright assignment back to the minor leagues or elect free agency in search of a better deal elsewhere.
Lawrence’s departure makes room for Lao on the active and 40-man rosters. Signed by the Dodgers out of the Dominican Republic back in 2016, Lao was initially signed as a corner infielder but converted to pitching after struggling to hit at the High-A level. He made his first pitching appearances in 2023 and looked good enough to reach the Double-A level, and last year dominated Double-A to the tune of a 1.90 ERA in 20 relief appearances before getting promoted to Triple-A. The inflated offensive environment of the Pacific Coast League was not kind to Lao, as he surrendered a 5.22 ERA in 29 1/3 innings of work. That was his last work in a Dodgers uniform, as he elected minor league free agency and signed with Seattle.
He’s made three abbreviated starts for Seattle so far at Triple-A, and looked good in doing so with a 2.00 ERA and a 21.2% strikeout rate against a walk rate of just 3%. Lao figures to serve as a long man for the Seattle bullpen, offering bulk relief to the club now that Lawrence is off the roster and Emerson Hancock has taken up a rotation job. Lao figures to be especially important for the Mariners in the coming days after the club went 12 innings against the Blue Jays last night, only five of which were handled by starter Logan Gilbert.
Mariners call up Sauron
The guy from Cobra Kai???
How do you score 8 runs yet strikeout 18 times??
By making good contact when you actually hit the ball. On the flip side, how do you only score 3 runs when you have 21 (?) PA with RISP, Toronto?
Big flies?
I like how Casey Lawrence has been signed and played for teams where Ross Atkins, John Mozeliak, and Jerry Dipoto are GM’s.
Uh oh dumpster diving isnt working
Just need a fresh arm for today after yesterday’s marathon. Gilbert didn’t even go 5 in a 12 inning game. Lawrence is an easy pass through waivers, as Lao will be soon.
Shocking how many people don’t get this
Right!!!
It’s like 25% of the mlbtr articles.
Lao might not be that easy to pass through waivers. He was a minor league free agent only because he burned years as a position player.
Lao was a bad AAA arm last season and has pitched in 3 games this season. If someone claims him, I personally won’t be too broken up by it. I don’t think he’s anything special, no offense to him.
He’s on a different pitching plan, but it doesn’t really matter as he’s just a stopgap for now.
Where does it say anything about Lao not having Options? Minor league free agents can still have 3 option years left.
Lao appears to be a 9-year minor league free agent (signed 2016, FA after 2024), not a 40-man release. But I welcome anyone who can show different.
I don’t see anyone disputing that he has options remaining. My reasoning for believing he’ll be DFAd in time is with a full 40, a revolving door in the pen, and players to be activated from the 60 day IL in time (Brash, Kowar, Bliss, Robles), he won’t survive the season on the 40 man.
The Dodgers thought enough of him to give him a non-roster invitation to Spring Training in 2024 where he pitched well. Their fans sites were actually very high on him. A lot were sad to see him leave as he’s a very hard thrower who’s still learning how to pitch. Dodgers also have a track record of converting Latin American position players into pitchers (Pedro Baez, Kenley Jansen).
Lao was actually very good in AA but while he struggled after a mid-season callup, that’s very common for minor league pitchers who often adjust to the new level the season after. Lao actually had a similar result in 2023 where he succeeded in A ball but struggled in high-A.
I don’t mind the musical chairs that have been played with this last pen spot, especially with how taxed the bullpen has been lately. Save some innings on those leverage arms for later in the season.
I don’t like it but the silver lining is brash should be coming back soon to add stability and stop the musical chairs unless santos gets hurt again
Can’t wait for Brash to be back
We could go a long way towards restoring reasonable pitcher usage by exploring ways to ban roster shenanigans such as what the mariners have done with Casey Lawrence over the past 2 weeks. They aren’t unique exactly, but come on, the guy e has been DFAed and resigned twice with the same team. It’s clearly an end run around roster limits and it should be prohibited.
Every team does it. I’m sure Casey knew this when signed. He has a guaranteed 760k salary. Has had to pitch 5 innings, 3 games couple plane rides. The risk a team has is every time they DFA they can be claimed.
First, he wasn’t ‘re-signed’ by the team each time he was designated for assignment.. When a veteran like that is DFA’d, they can refuse the outright assignment and elect free agency..
Second, how would limitations help the players? Taking away the ability to stick with an organization they’re comfortable with and that may be their best shot at the majors would do the opposite.
He in fact has “re signed” after opting for free agency. I think if we cut off these Roth work arounds teams would have to keep players on the roster instead of yo-yoing them in this manner. What is happening right now is that teams have the ability to abuse pitchers in this weird interim state. I’m sure Casey would rather be on the Major League roster for the past week, rather than in limbo not pitching. Yeah a few players might benefit here, but over This only occurs because teams are violating the clear intent of roster limits and also of service time accrual. If we want more opportunities then why not increase roster size? Oh yeah because that costs money and teams would resist. Instead they would exploit loopholes at lower cost.
First, according to the MiLB page for Lawrence, he was in fact outrighted yesterday and had the contract selected today.
Second, you’re missing the point, regardless. When the player elects free agency, he can sign anywhere. Lawrence didn’t have to choose Seattle on a minor-league contract.
The fact that he did doesn’t mean he’s getting jerked around.
End of story.
Any team is free to claim him when DFA’d. M’s just keep giving him chances where other teams aren’t.
Need a taxi squad for relievers so they can continue receiving their pay and accumulating service time, especially after they’ve done their job and saved the bullpen! A topic for 2026 CBA talks.
At 37 Casey is no going to get his 10 years, has a guaranteed 760k salary. Any team can claim a player that has been DFAed.
Not to mention a ‘taxi squad’ wouldn’t give them more money. There are still just 26 players on an active roster and teams can actually ‘taxi’ players around–and do–when a roster move is expected. They don’t do that regularly because keeping a player off the field for more than a couple of days isn’t helpful for the player or team.
Driving that train out of cocaine
Woah!
And the rotation continues. He’ll be raking up the miles between AAA & MLB.
You can’t quit us!?