The Mariners and right-hander Casey Lawrence have reunited on a minor league deal, per his transactions tracker at MLB.com. The Big League Management Company client will presumably receive an invite to major league spring training in a few months.
Lawrence, 37, signed a minor league deal with the M’s going into last year as well. He provided the club with some non-roster depth, making 29 starts and logging 165 Triple-A innings with a 5.95 earned run average in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League. His 14.9% strikeout rate was subpar but his 6.6% walk rate was strong and he got grounders at a solid 44.1% clip.
That’s wasn’t enough to get Lawrence called to the major leagues, so he reached minor league free agency recently, but he’ll now return to the M’s and give them an experienced depth arm. Lawrence has pitched in parts of four different major league seasons, suiting up for the Blue Jays, Mariners and Cardinals. In that time, he has a 6.75 ERA in 124 innings.
The Mariners have a strong rotation if everyone is healthy, though that’s not something a club can count on. Luis Castillo, George Kirby, Logan Gilbert and Bryce Miller each made at least 30 starts in 2024 with no one in that group having an ERA higher than 3.64. Bryan Woo had some injuries but still managed to give the club 22 starts with a 2.89 ERA.
The M’s also have Emerson Hancock on hand, though his upper-level results haven’t inspired much confidence. He has just a 16.7% strikeout rate at the Triple-A level and just a 14.3% clip against major league hitters. Jhonathan Díaz and Blas Castano are also on the 40-man roster but Díaz has just 45 major league innings under his belt while Castano has none.
In short, while the M’s do have a strong rotation, the options beyond the top five aren’t as impressive. While many fans of rival clubs have speculated about plucking a starter from Seattle, president of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto recently referred to that as the club’s “Plan Z“, perhaps a reflection of the thin depth. Less injury luck in 2025 could make that an issue as the season goes along, but Lawrence will give them another arm to potentially call upon.
I see Diaz has pitched as well for the Mariners as he did for the Angels. This strengthens my belief that any of our bad pitchers rarely go on to do anything else, which means there are several on the Angels current roster that need to go.
re” Hancock
“upper-level results haven’t inspired much confidence”. Thats because everone is saying that. BUT, IF your only looking at the counting 3’s. Take away the bad start where he gave up 8 runs, and what do you have? Then his #’s take on a whole different look. 8/12 starts he has gone 5+inn and give about 2-3 runs.
Hancock is a good 5th starter on any rotation other than Mariners due to their 5 man rotation.
Yes, players look better when you take away their bad games, but the big picture is more meaningful: 4.8 ERA, 5.9 xERA, 5.7 FIP, 5.2 xFIP, 5.1 SIERA, all supported by a 7% K-BB (half the league average). The definition of mediocrity.
Yes! Now I have confidence that the Mariners will win at least 60 games in 2025! Wow, what a relief…I was starting to get worried there…
The Ms have a couple other arms to go with Hancock. I still am pulling for him to get called up and get rid of the couple bad starts he has had. If he is called up that means 1 of our top 5 is injured or traded. I would be OK with trading Castillo if they get an infielder for him. They can then swap him for some minor league players when the youngins are ready. What a team they will have when all the kids get called up. We might lose one or two in a trade but that is fine we will have some good players.and just need to fill those couple holes.
I’m not convinced Hancock is a complete bust yet. He has a good compliment of pitches the make me think he’s still at least a solid #4/5 type with some upside beyond that.
Hancock could be a #4/5 starter. He doesn’t quite have the stuff (since his injuries), but he seems savvy. He can often walk the tightrope enough to keep his team in the game.