The Mariners announced that they have selected the contract of right-hander Casey Lawrence. Fellow righty Sauryn Lao was optioned to Triple-A Tacoma in a corresponding active roster move. To get Lawrence onto the 40-man, outfielder Víctor Robles was transferred to the 60-day injured list. Robles suffered a left shoulder dislocation a couple of weeks ago and isn’t expected back for several months.
Lawrence and the Mariners seem to have an arrangement that is working for both of them. The season is only a few weeks old but this is already the third time he has been selected to the roster. He signed a minor league deal with the M’s in the winter and was called up to the majors on April 9th. A few days later, he was designated for assignment, cleared waivers and elected free agency. He returned on a fresh minor league deal and was back on the roster by April 18th. Once again, he was quickly DFA’d and cleared waivers but is now back on the roster a third time.
Around those transactions, he has served as a multi-inning reliever for the club. He has logged five innings across three appearances thus far, having allowed two earned runs. By continually shuffling him on and off the roster, the Mariners can keep fresh arms moving in and out of the bullpen.
Lawrence is out of options, which necessitates him continually being removed from the 40-man. He has the right to elect free agency as a player with a previous career outright but seems content to circling back to the Mariners each time. From his perspective, he gets to add a bit of major league pay and service time, not a bad outcome for a 37-year-old journeyman.
Emerson Hancock, the least established member of the Seattle rotation, takes the ball tonight for the M’s at Fenway Park. If he gets into trouble, Lawrence will likely be called upon to sop up some innings and save the rest of the bullpen before tomorrow’s day game.
Photo courtesy of Stephen Brashear, Imagn Images
Didn’t they just release him? Every other day they sign him, release him, sign him, release him lol.
They’re a couple of arms short until Brash and Kirby return so they’re having to shuffle pitchers up and down when they need a fresher guy.
Jarred: Which means, when Brash and Kirby return, Lawrence will be dfa’d again, signed to a minor league deal, then reappear before the week is out. Jesse Chavez should be worried. Lawrence is closing in on Chavez’ six times (briefly) wearing a Brave’s uniform.
avenger – Well said!
And I can’t believe Hancock shut down the Red Sox right near the resting place of John Hancock.
Well tomorrow Crochet finally faces a decent offense, let’s hope he lives up to the hype against Woo.
Crochet has faced the #17 offense once and the #27 offense three times in his four starts this season, he needs to show he can be successful against good lineups.
They’re going to do this all season. When Brash returns, it will be somebody else up-and-down (does Bazardo have options?)
This time he was sent outright to Tacoma (yesterday) and had his contract selected today. He wasn’t released.
He has bounced around the minors over the years. He had refused an outright assignment earlier to test free agency, but didn’t have any takers, so he chose to return to Seattle on a new minor-league deal.
This is common. Some players will accept the outright assignment after having tested free agency already. Keep in mind, a team could claim him when designated for assignment.
Followed by a Lawrence DFA just to re select him next week
Jacob Nottingham Jr.
It’s always the guys that aren’t even that good either, like I understand wanting flexibility as a player but at what point do you just accept the assignment to the minors? It’s clear you’re gonna get called up again.
It’s cause they know he’s bad enough no other team really wants him but there bad enough that they need him. At least that was the Casey Lawrence with the jays a few years ago
4 guarantees in life:
-Death
-Taxes
-Jesse Chavez joins the Braves
-Mariners call up Casey Lawrence
And somebody signs Erasmo Ramirez.
The only part of this I struggle to understand is if player and team have an arrangement to do this, why does he keep electing free agency?
In the past, I remember a color guy saying that the MLBPA frowns upon a player accepting the outright because they don’t want to set precedent that players would willingly surrender any control to the team. It would be nice to hear an agent or team exec say it, though.
Oh man, you’re such a cool troll!
3.1 WAR in 77 games for Seattle in 2024 is awful?
He only needs to be selected a few more times for a free coffee
the old latte punch card…cool
I’m getting motion sickness. Anybody got any Dramamine?
The new Revolving Door at T-Mobile has been designated The Casey Lawrence Door.
It’s weird that this is generating so much attention.
Jesse Chavez, West Coast version
Decent gig. Lose your job and get hired again immediately. It pays to be okay but not good enough for other teams to want to take you. This will be happening the whole season.