SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — June 13, 2023, Fenway Park, Boston. Rockies 4, Red Sox 4. Seventh inning. Justin Lawrence trots out from the bullpen and hikes the mound.
“I came into a jam in a tight ballgame and I caught myself singing the ‘Sweet Caroline’ song,” the Rockies’ right-hander recalled Wednesday. “I was looking around and I thought, ‘This is kind of cool.’
“Then I thought, ‘Wait a minute, it’s a tie ballgame in the seventh inning, I’m coming in to get us out of a jam, and it’s my first time ever at Fenway.’ It didn’t matter, it was a fun moment.”
Lawrence pitched 1 2/3 innings that night, and although he issued two walks, he allowed no runs, stranded two inherited runners, and kept Colorado in a game it eventually won, 7-6, in 10 innings.
It wasn’t the singular moment of Lawrence’s career but it illustrates how far he’s come since being a raw prospect with a unique, sidewinder delivery, 102 mph fastball and frequent bouts of inconsistency.
“There are two main things about Justin,” manager Bud Black said. “On the fundamental side, he’s tightened up his stuff. Secondly, I’ve seen changes in his poise and maturity. In essence, he’s grown up to where his perspective and his mindset are of major league quality.”
Lawrence, 29, is competing with friend and fellow right-hander Tyler Kinley for the closer job. Righty Daniel Bard, who will miss spring training after undergoing arthroscopic surgery on his left knee, could be in the mix, too, when he returns.
Black and his staff are going to take a hard look at both Lawrence and Kinley for the ninth-inning role.
“We think (Kinley) is mentally built to handle the ninth inning,” Black said. “Stuff-wise, he’s got weapons. He can pitch with velocity with the fastball, has a swing-and-miss slider and he’s working on the changeup. The bread and butter is his slider. But like Justin, he’s not a secret anymore in the National League and in our division.”
Lawrence’s road to the majors has been full of potholes but he’s always had tantalizing talent. Black became intrigued with Lawrence’s raw stuff in 2018 when the right-hander posted a 2.65 ERA in 55 appearances with High-A Lancaster. Lawrence wowed the Rockies in the Arizona Fall League and impressed again during spring training 2019. But then his control evaporated and his ERA soared at Triple-A Albuquerque and Double-A Hartford.
Then came the lowest moment of Lawrence’s career. He was suspended before the 2020 season for taking DHCMT, a substance banned by Major League Baseball. Lawrence said he didn’t know that the NSF-certified supplement he was taking contained DHCMT.
“I wouldn’t wish what I had to go through on my worst enemy,” Lawrence said later.
With those struggles behind him, he now has an opportunity to lock down his dream job.
“I like the idea of going in to get the saves and the holds,” he said. “I don’t feel out of my element at all, and I don’t feel like the game speeds up on me or anything like that. I mean, this is what a competitor wants. As a kid, you want to be the starter, or the four-hole hitter, or the closer. It would be awesome to be the closer, but I came to camp ready to prepare for whatever role the team needs me for.”
Lawrence’s 2023 season was a mixed bag. He posted a 1.47 ERA in 15 appearances and moved into the closer role in June when Pierce Johnson (later traded to Atlanta) started walking batters in droves. In his first 17 games as the closer, Lawrence converted seven of eight save opportunities while posting a 1.86 ERA. But he slumped in the second half of the season and lost the closer job to Kinley in early September.
Lawrence’s first- and second-half splits illustrate his inconsistency. In 38 appearances before the All-Star break, he had a 2.76 ERA and opponents slashed just .188/.284/.269 against him. In the second half, his ERA soared to 5.22 in 31 outings and opponents slashed .299/.400/.470.
“I liked everything about last season — the good, the bad and the ugly,” he said. “I liked the bad and the ugly because I learned from those things. I also loved that I was healthy the whole year and that when Buddy asked, ‘Hey, are you good to go?’ I was available.”
Lawrence is also aware that volitivity is part of a reliever’s life.
“Sure, you have the (Josh) Hader’s and the (Edwin) Diaz’s that go 162 games and they look like they were flawless, but there are still tough stretches in there for them, too,” Lawrence said. “But they have those long stretches when they are elite pitchers. So, for me, it’s about learning how to be elite for longer periods of time. And understanding that the bad stretches don’t mean that my season is in turmoil.”
Lawrence has devastating stuff. He throws a sinking fastball and a side-to-side slider that’s come to be known as a “sweeper.” But he’s still learning to harness his two pitches.
“He’s getting the ball more consistently in the strike zone with two pitches that have tremendous movement,” Black said. “That’s difficult, especially when you have that much movement on the fastball and that much of a break on the breaking ball. When you throw that hard, and when your hand is moving that fast to create the velocity, that’s difficult to harness.
“But he’s come a long way in harnessing those pitches, to the point that it’s truly major league caliber stuff.”
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