Justin Lawrence, a Major League Baseball pitcher who once played for Daytona State College, has been claimed off waivers by the Pittsburgh Pirates ahead of the 2025 MLB season. Lawrence has spent all four seasons of his major league career to this point with the Colorado Rockies, meaning his newest challenge will have him moving east.
“Thank you Rockies for the last 10 years of my life,” Lawrence posted to Instagram on Tuesday. “You took a kid from a small [junior college] and gave him a shot to live out his dream. I’d do it all over again, the highs, the lows, every single moment, because it made me who I am today […] That being said, I could not be more excited to be a Pirate! New city, new squad, same love for the game.”
Daytona Beach to the Major Leagues
Originally born in Panama in 1994, Lawrence immigrated to Florida as a toddler. He went to First Coast High School in Jacksonville and later played college baseball at both DSC and Jacksonville University. Lawrence’s 2015 season at Daytona State was stellar, with a 2-1 record in 19 games and a 2.81 earned run average. It was enough to get the attention of big league teams in that year’s MLB Draft.
The Colorado Rockies selected Lawrence in the 12th round as the 347th overall pick, assigning him first to the Low-A Boise Hawks. From 2015 to 2021 Lawrence slowly and methodically worked his way up through the ranks before earning his first MLB call-up on April 29th, 2021.
The first four seasons of Lawrence’s career as an MLB relief pitcher have contained both good and bad. His 2023 campaign raised eyebrows for many, as he threw to a 3.72 ERA and averaged over one strikeout per inning. He also allowed only five home runs in 75 innings pitched, a difficult feat for any hurler in the thinner atmosphere of Denver, Colorado. His 2024, however, saw him post his worst full-season numbers yet, with a 6.49 ERA, fewer strikeouts, and more home runs allowed.
Colorado to Pittsburgh
Things initially looked optimistic for Lawrence to stay in Colorado for the 2025 season. In the off-season he agreed with the team to a $975,000 salary to avoid an arbitration hearing on his compensation. His three appearances for the Rockies in Spring Training saw him average one earned run per inning, not a solid start to what he’s hoping would be a rebound campaign. Still, Spring Training is often a testing place for new mechanics more than a hard statistical battleground.
Over the weekend, the Rockies placed Justin Lawrence on waivers, giving the other 29 teams in the league the opportunity to claim him on his current contract in order of reverse winning percentage from the previous year. The Pittsburgh Pirates decided they liked what they saw in Lawrence, and claimed him. With a few weeks still to go in Spring Training, Lawrence will be joining up with the Pirates’ squad hoping to be the catalyst for a rebound year both for himself and for Pittsburgh.
The Pirates’ relief pitchers had the fourth-worst ERA in baseball last year, giving up a run about every two innings pitched. Oscar Marin, the team pitching coach since 2019, will be back for another attempt at righting the pirate ship. The team’s relievers were slightly better at striking out batters (16th out of 30 teams), something that could play to Lawrence’s favor as he moves to a home ballpark whose dimensions were considerably more friendly to pitchers in 2024.
