The Nationals announced that right-hander Eddy Yean has been recalled from Triple-A Rochester. Fellow righty Justin Lawrence has been designated for assignment as the corresponding move.
The Nats claimed Lawrence off waivers just under a month ago. Since then, he has made seven appearances, allowing three earned runs in 6 1/3 innings. That gives him a 4.26 ERA in that span, which isn’t bad, but he walked seven opponents while striking out six.
Lawrence has bounced around the league, getting opportunities based on clubs betting on his upside, as opposed to his actual results. He pitched for the Rockies from 2021 to 2024, posting a 5.43 ERA. But he averaged over 95 miles per hour on his sinker and theoretically could have had better results if he weren’t playing his home games at Coors Field.
He has exhausted his options during his time in Colorado and they put him on waivers ahead of the 2025 season. The Pirates put in a claim and initially had some encouraging results. Lawrence missed over four months of that season due to elbow inflammation but posted an ERA of 0.51 in 17 2/3 innings around that. His 11.6% walk rate was too high but he struck out a third of batters faced and induced grounders at a 47.2% clip.
The Bucs tendered him a contract for 2026, agreeing to a salary of $1.225MM. Unfortunately, he hasn’t been able to carry forward any of the promise he showed last year. He has gone from the Pirates to the Twins and Nationals, putting up a 7.34 ERA along the way. His 24.3% strikeout rate and 42.4% ground ball rate are decent enough but he has given out walks to 28 of the 177 batters he has faced, an awful 15.8% clip. He has also hit six batters, so it has really been 20.9% of opponents getting a free trip to first base.
Lawrence will presumably be on waivers again in the coming days. Perhaps another club will take a bet on his stuff, even though the results haven’t been there. If things click for him, he can be controlled via arbitration for another two seasons.
If he were to clear waivers, he would have the right to elect free agency but probably wouldn’t exercise that right. Players with at least three years of service have the right to reject outright assignments, but need at least five years to also retain their remaining salary commitments. He is still owed a little more than $400K and would presumably want that money, so he would head to Rochester in that situation.
Photo courtesy of Brad Mills, Imagn Images
