Seattle’s most-used depth option gets selected once more.
Casey Lawrence has yet again been selected and added to the 40 man roster by the Seattle Mariners. For roughly the 72nd time (okay it’s five) in the past 60 days or so, Lawrence was chosen out of AAA-Tacoma to provide bullpen depth for Seattle. The corresponding moves sent last night’s debutant, Blas Castano, back to the Rainiers, and also lead Seattle to designate catcher Blake Hunt for assignment.
While the Castano move should come as no surprise after the righty dutifully chowed down several innings in Seattle’s blowout loss last night to the Washington Nationals, Hunt’s designation is at least slightly more intriguing. In his first tenure with Seattle, Hunt followed a similar trajectory. He was brought in as catching depth, hit well in Tacoma, but ultimately was jettisoned and claimed off waivers. Trip number two through the South Sound has been shakier, as he has struggled in essentially a back up catcher role behind Harry Ford, hitting well previous performance and carrying over struggles that befell him in 2024 with the Orioles.
The pathos of the 2025 Casey Lawrence experience is extraordinary. Last time he was called up I told you she had the opportunity to move into the top 200 Mariners pitchers by innings pitched. He did just that with his five innings at the time. He’s now thrown 80.1 frames for Seattle, ranking 199th in club history. Given this will be a bullpen role and not an intended piggy-back/long relief outing, the next threshold is difficult to gauge. Should Lawrence work two frames, as he often has, he’d surpass Greg Hibbard, Mark Grant, Keith Comstock, and Drew Steckenrider, and be breathing down the necks of Oliver Pérez, Penn Murfee, Carter Capps, and Steve Cishek.