Casey Lawrence DFA’d once more to make space for MLB debut of RHP Sauryn Lao

The Lawrence Express departs the station once more.

The bullpen shuffle – really, the Casey Lawrence shuffle – continues in the Seattle Mariners bullpen. The M’s announced Sunday morning that they have designated the veteran right-handed pitcher for assignment once again, clearing a 40-man and 26-man roster spot for rookie RHP Sauryn Lao to make his potential big league debut in the bullpen.

For Lawrence, it’s the same old song and dance, as he occupies a mildly perverse space wherein he surely is hoping in some part of himself not to pitch when called up to the bigs, knowing no matter how well or poorly he performs it will spell his subsequent removal from the major league ranks once more. Nonetheless, Lawrence did his job, getting the final three outs of Seattle’s unlikely extra innings victory on Saturday afternoon and saving the once-more stretched ranks of the high-leverage brigade from further extension. He’ll hopefully once more re-sign in Seattle with the Tacoma Rainiers and continue to grace the organization with his stability.

To greet the club in his stead is Dominican RHP Sauryn Lao, whose journey to this moment is lengthier than most debutants. The 25 year old spent ages 16-22 (2016-2022, conveniently) in the Los Angeles Dodgers system, playing corner infield and slugging his way up to High-A with respectable numbers that eventually fizzled at that stage. In 2023, he was converted to the mound, where Lao was a fish in water. He sped through the low minors and had strong success up to the Double-A Tulsa Drillers in 2024, but as a minor league free agent he chose new pastures after topping out with Triple-A Oklahoma City in the L.A. system. Signed with a non-roster invite to Spring Training, Lao looked intriguing with Seattle, and has a 2.00/4.10 ERA/FIP in 9.0 innings across three games in Triple-A Tacoma. Starting for the first time since 2023, albeit in shorter stints, Lao brings multi-inning depth with a three-pitch mix heavily reliant on a dynamite sweeping slider that mirrors his running fastball well. In the past, his changeup has been firm but inconsistent, leaving Lao vulnerable to platoon splits, but he has enough juice in the slider to make it work.

As always, congratulations to Lao on what will hopefully be a comfortable debut in a blowout win.