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Toronto Blue Jays bring back veteran pitcher for third stint with team

Adam Laskaris
Adam Laskaris
|
Apr 28 2025, 7:59 pm
Toronto Blue Jays bring back veteran pitcher for third stint with team
Jonathan Dyer/USA TODAY Sports

What’s old is new again for the Toronto Blue Jays.

Today, the organization announced that they’d claimed veteran pitcher Casey Lawrence off waivers from the Seattle Mariners, adding a bit of depth to their staff by acquiring the 37-year-old right-hander.

Lawrence was designated for assignment earlier this week by the Mariners.

It’s the third go-around with the organization for Lawrence, who played 10 games for the team at the major league level, appearing in games in both the 2017 and 2022 seasons.

He originally signed with the franchise way back in 2010 as an undrafted free agent, before eventually being designated for assignment for the first time in 2017 after four games with the team, including a pair of starts. He’s since found his way to Seattle (twice), a stint in Japan with the Hiroshima Carp, a return to Toronto in 2022 for six games with the Jays, the St. Louis Cardinals, and a minor-league deal with the Minnesota Twins.

Given his track record, a player like Lawrence isn’t a likely difference-maker at the major league level. Over the course of 63 MLB games with Toronto, Seattle, and St. Louis, he’s gone 5-5 with a 6.51 ERA in 134.0 combined innings.

Toronto’s pitching has been right about average this season, with the team’s combined ERA sitting a 4.06 this season, 16th in the major leagues.

But the Blue Jays are searching for answers in the early months of the season, as they’ve dropped to 13-15 and sit fourth in the American League East, four games out of the division lead.

Lawrence is primarily a pitcher who relies on his breaking stuff, throwing either a sinker or a sweeper in 69.8 per cent of his pitches this year per Statcast, while only 6.4 per cent of his pitches are four-seam fastballs.

Toronto returns to the Rogers Centre this week for a three-game set against the Boston Red Sox, kicking off on Tuesday.

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