Sometimes, you just get tired of being the good soldier. That may be the case with right-hander Casey Lawrence, who opted out of his minor league deal with Seattle four days ago and has now signed with the Phillies. Lawrence, 38, was an option for the Mariners that they perhaps took for granted.
Since just prior to the 2024 season, Lawrence has been a part of the Mariners organization and they have brought him to the majors whenever they needed an extra arm or someone to give some innings. Out of options, the Mariners would have to DFA him before sending him to the minors and he would go unclaimed, accept the outright assignment, and return to Triple -A Tacoma. It was all just the way things were.
Lawrence had an opt-out in his contract and Seattle probably figured that he would just let it pass and continue with the Rainiers. Instead, Lawrence exercised the opt-out clause and become a free agent. In came the Phillies and signed the righty to a minor league deal and sent him to Triple-A Lehigh Valley.
The long and winding road
It’s been a long time since Lawrence started his journey in baseball. He went undrafted out of Albright College in Reading, PA and signed with Toronto in June of 2010. After plodding through the Blue Jays organization, Lawrence became a free agent following the 2016 season and ultimately re-signed with the Jays. His contract was selected by Toronto in April of 2017 and by the end of May had been optioned and recalled twice before being designated for assignment and being claimed by Seattle.
Over the rest of the season, the Mariners optioned and recalled Lawrence four times prior to outrighting him to Tacoma. Again, Lawrence became a free agent only to re-sign with the Mariners. In 2018, he was recalled and optioned four more times before being released at the end of the season. This time, Lawrence went in a completely different direction and signed with the Hiroshima Toyo Carp of the Nippon Professional Baseball League (NPB), but made just one appearance and allowed six runs in five innings with the big league club and spent most of the season with the Carp’s minor league team in the Western League going 4-7 with a 4.51 ERA in 21 relief appearances.
Taking his game elsewhere
After Japan, it was back to the United States and a minor league deal with Minnesota in February of 2020. We all remember what happened a month later when everything shut down because of COVID. Lawrence was on the “Alternate Site” team for the Twins, but didn’t get a chance to pitch in the shortened MLB season.
Ironically, there was one more thing that Lawrence had not experienced in his career. Nobody was willing to sign him. That left him to pitch in the independent ranks with the York Revolution. Just before the Atlantic League season got underway, Toronto called and purchased him from York. The 2021 and ’22 seasons were more of the same for Lawrence; up and down with the Blue Jays, becoming a free agent only to re-sign with them and in 2023 playing for Triple-A Buffalo, Lawrence was released.
You can say that he sort of changed his feathers and went from being a Blue Jay to a Cardinal. He made 15 largely uninspiring relief appearances with St. Louis in August and September and at the end of the season – you guessed it: he became a free agent.
In 2024, Lawrence was back with Seattle and the whole saga continued.
The results over the years
Lawrence has spent parts of five different seasons in the majors and has 65 games – two starts – to his credit with a 5-6, 6.42 career record. At Triple-A, Lawrence has pitched for three different teams – Buffalo, Tacoma, and Memphis – and made 168 starts to go with 19 relief appearances. He is 51-53 with a 4.43 ERA in those games.
Repertoire
Lawrence isn’t a power arm — he works primarily in the upper 80s with his fastball and leans on a five-pitch mix. His most-used pitch is a sinker (roughly 40% usage in 2025), paired with a changeup (~21%), a sweeper (~17%), a slider (~13%), and mixes in a four-seamer, cutter, and curveball. It’s a pitch-to-contact, command-over-stuff profile — he walked just 3.5% of batters in Triple-A this year, though his strikeout rate (14.4%) is well below average. All of that resulted in a 6-7 record and a 4.37 ERA with Tacoma. One thing Lawrence will do is give a team innings; his 131.2 innings in 23 starts this season leads all of minor league baseball.
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