Third baseman Brett Lawrie is set to make his major league debut Friday night after being called up by the Blue Jays.
Lawrie was acquired by the Jays last December in the trade that sent Shaun Marcum to the Brewers. The 21 year old entered the year considered one of Toronto’s best minor leaguers and checked in at number 40 on Baseball America’s top prospect list.
On the season, Lawrie has posted a line of .347/.414/.647 with 18 home runs and 62 RBI’s. These impressive numbers earned him the call, and manager John Farrell is excited to see what kind of player the Blue Jays have in Lawrie.
"“Finally, this is a guy that we’ve had a lot of expectations on. That’s not to create more of a hysteria situation, than the attention that’s going to follow him, but he has done everything we’ve asked at Triple-A.”"
Lawrie nearly earned a call earlier this season before an injury derailed those plans. He’s since been rehabbing and regaining his comfort at the plate in Triple-A.
Toronto will add Lawrie to their lineup immediately as his addition at third allows slugger Jose Bautista to move back to his normal position of right field. This season Toronto third basemen have only managed an OPS of .694, a number that was significantly lower before Bautista took over duties at the hot corner.
To make room on their roster for Lawrie, the Blue Jays have optioned Travis Snider back to the minors. Another former Jays’ top prospect, Snider has struggled this season for Toronto and has been up and down between the minors trying to figure things out. He’s shown he can hit Triple-A pitching (.890 OPS) but hasn’t been able to reproduce that success in the majors this year (.616 OPS).
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