Time for Brett Lawrie to have long-awaited breakout season for Blue Jays

DUNEDIN, Fla. – A lot of things have to go right in 2014 for the Toronto Blue Jays to correct 2013’s last-place finish. And, there’s a very good chance that as Brett Lawrie goes, so will the Blue Jays.

The Canadian-born third baseman is just 24 years old but is entering his third full season in the big leagues and fans and the organization are ready for a long-anticipated breakout season. Lawrie showed what he is capable of doing as an everyday player when he burst onto the scene in 2011. In 2014, he needs to go out and do it consistently – ideally over 162 games, or something close to that.

At his best, Lawrie can be a five-tool player and a sparkplug for a team often in need of an emotional jolt and a timely hit. At his worst, he is injury-plagued, an impatient hitter who strikes out too much, and makes some curious decisions as a baserunner. For the Blue Jays to contend this season they need the best version of Good Brett.

In Lawrie’s case, less is more, as the old cliché goes. He’s working with new hitting coach Kevin Seitzer to quiet his hands at the plate (an adjustment that began in the second half of 2013). He’s also determined to avoid injuries by curbing his sometimes reckless style of play.

“I haven’t really changed anything, just the mentality,” Lawrie said. “My mentality has always been stay inside the baseball and that’s the exact same thing as [Seitzer]. So it’s not necessarily changing anything it’s just about keeping my hands quiet, see the ball, and go attack it.”

“Keeping my hands quiet” is baseball talk for having less movement in his bat while awaiting the pitch. Anyone who has watched Lawrie play baseball knows that he is an “excitable” guy. Quieting down his swing was an adjustment that began last season under then-hitting coach Chad Mottola and has continued with Seitzer.

“He’s making some tremendous adjustments just to try to quiet down his hands a little bit to where he doesn’t have so much movement with his bat when he’s getting ready to fire,” Setizer said. “The last month and a half of the season they really started focusing on it and I’ve tried to do the same thing. Just get him out of hook mode and really focus on driving the ball back through the middle of the field.”

The changes paid off almost immediately last season. Lawrie hit .204/.261/.361 in the first half of 2013 then had a slash line of .283/.346/.417 in the second half, including batting .346 in August.

That’s the momentum he hopes to take into the 2014 season.

“I’m feeling good. I have to continue doing what I’m doing, continue to see the ball. Continue good at-bats, just go up there with a plan and just go up there and do it,” Lawrie said. For what it’s worth, so far in spring training he’s batting .385.

Lawrie could also have that awaited turnaround season simply by staying on the field. In some ways he is a victim of his own very early success. In 2011 he made his debut and played 43 games and hit .293/.373/.580 with nine home runs and 25 runs-batted-in in just 150 at-bats. He hasn’t come near those numbers since, in part due to a laundry list of injuries. Lawrie has suffered significant injuries in each of his big-league seasons. His major-league debut was delayed due to a hand injury. In 2012, he missed games due to various back, calf, and oblique injuries plus a four-game suspension. Last year, he missed the first 13 games of the season with a ribcage injury then another 41 games with an ankle injury.

The injury roll call reads like that of a 20-year battle worn veteran, not a player with just 275 career games under his belt.

“Maintain flexibility and not worry about injuries and just go get it,” is how Lawrie described his attempts to stay healthy this season.

Lawrie has not been handled like most top prospects since being acquired by the Blue Jays in a trade with the Milwaukee Brewers in 2010. After the trade he played in just 69 Triple-A games with the Blue Jays’ affiliate in Las Vegas before being called to The Show. He’s never really been back to the minors since, with the exception of his many rehab assignments.

The Blue Jays in some ways appear unsure in what they have in the highest-drafted Canadian player ever, and yet put a lot of faith in him. They have tinkered with him in about every spot in the batting order, and have had him play three different positions.

He has mostly played third base but there was a short-lived experiment at second last year (after being drafted by the Brewers 16^th overall in 2008 he spent two years in their system as a second baseman). The Blue Jays have finally settled on third as his home, and when he’s there he’s been pretty good. He had a .963 fielding percentage in 2013 and a 1.4 dWAR rating, good for 12^th in the big leagues among players with at least 850 innings.

Lawrie has all the tools to become the player the Blue Jays thought he would be when they acquired him. This season is his chance to prove it. The Blue Jays are a mostly veteran team with a closing window to be competitive, but also full of question marks. An All-Star season from Lawrie could go a long way to improving their fortunes.

“He wants to do it... Wants to be a consistent contributor in the lineup,” hitting coach Seitzer said. “I see him in a position to have a great year right now.”