DUNEDIN, FLA.—A big part of the overall puzzle of what the Blue Jays need to discover this spring is who can be the next five starting pitchers in the organization that might be considered for the big-league club should there be injuries or failures, or both, as the season unfolds. Thus it was interesting to hear pitching coach Pete Walker include the name of 29-year-old Casey Lawrence.
There are more struggling, hang-with-it stories like Casey Lawrence every year than there are stories like Marcus Stroman, a highly-rated prospect out of a major university, with much bonus money and an almost immediate future.
Lawrence is entering his eighth professional season after signing with the Jays as a non-drafted free agent out of tiny Albright College, in Reading, Pa., in 2010. A groundball specialist, his climb through the Jays’ system has been slow. His professional record is a mediocre 63-60, with a 3.83 ERA, in 169 games. And he appeared to plateau at Double-A New Hampshire, where he spent most of 2014 and 2015 and half of 2016.
But all of a sudden, late last season, when he was one step away from the majors in Buffalo, Lawrence started to dominate. Adjustments in his delivery had bumped his velocity. His effectiveness over the final month earned him a new minor-league contract and his first invitation to major-league spring training, wearing No. 59.
“Just a culmination of a lot of hard work, being down in Double-A with (pitching coach) Vince Horsman,” Lawrence said. “We changed a couple of mechanical things and it started to come together at the end of the year and a little bump in velocity. Before I was 88-90 (miles per hour). Near the end of the year, I was 92-94, so it’s just being able to pitch a little differently.”
Horsman, a journeyman Canadian from Nova Scotia who recognized some of himself in Lawrence’s struggles to succeed, might have been as proud of the progress as the pitcher himself.
“My approach is, no matter how far-fetched it might seem for a kid to maybe get there, I’m never going to squelch a dream,” Horsman said. “Because where I grew up, what I wanted to do, nobody had done it.
“With Casey, it was we get to a certain point and our game starts to stall out. So it was kind of just changing his mindset a little bit, but then explaining what I was thinking and what (coach) Rick Langford was thinking . . . about changing the mindset, changing a little bit about your approach to your game and then having Casey buy into that.”
The result has been that Lawrence is now in a position, competing with major-leaguers, that he had never been invited to before. His increased velocity, his command of his sinker and the lack of immediate depth in the Jays’ upper levels give the Pennsylvania native a puncher’s chance at The Show some time during the upcoming season. But just to walk in and sit at his own locker?
“This will be my eighth year, but I love the game too much to quit on it,” Lawrence said. “That would be one of those things where I’ll have to be forced out of the game before I stop playing it. I grew up always playing the game, loving it, my dad coaching it, my grandfather played, so it’s one of those things where it’s just ingrained in me. Go out and play.
“You’re never too old or too good to learn something, no matter what you’re doing. There’s always a way to get better and I think sitting and watching is a way to do that. I just try and do that every day.”
As much as he tries to downplay it, when Lawrence walked into the Jays’ major-league clubhouse and sat at his own locker, it was special.
“It’s surreal, but at the same time, just having put in the hard work, I think I’ve earned this and now just being able to go out there and prove it now is what I’m trying to do,” he said. “At the end of the day, if I can look in the mirror and say, ‘Hey, I gave it my best, that’s all that I can really ask for. That’s what I try and do, is go out there and work on my craft every day and, hopefully, I can make a difference.”
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