Brewers Give Brett Lawrie a Second Chance

Brett Lawrie announced on his Instagram account that he had signed a deal with the Milwaukee Brewers. Originally a first round draft pick by the Brew Crew in 2008, Lawrie spent six seasons in the majors playing both third base and second base with the Toronto Blue Jays, Oakland A's and Chicago White Sox. Lawrie was released by the Chisox during spring training in 2017 and has not played professional baseball since.

It is a mystery why Lawrie has been out of the game the past two seasons. The Canadian born Lawrie is still young having just turned 29 last month. Despite being limited to 94 games in his only season with the Chisox, his production was decent (.248 BA, 12 HR, 36 RBI) and he has versatility. The only thing I can think of is that he made enemies and burned bridges somewhere along the way. A portion of his Instagram post seems to indicate that something went awry:

Life has been a little weird for me this past couple years. To be honest, it’s lonely. I worked my whole life to achieve my dreams. I’ve shared a locker room with 25+ me ever since I’ve been 19 years old & I blinked and it all disappeared. I’ve put more effort into finding the people I thought knew what was best for me than any of you could understand.

I do remember Lawrie as a very intense player during his tenure with the Blue Jays and this is likely the crux of the problem as illustrated in the blog Everything Bluebirds after the White Sox parted ways with him:

He was showing flashes of the power hitter that made him such a force in the minor leagues, and he appeared to be Toronto’s 3rd baseman for years to come. After a little while though, you began to pick-up on strange behavioural things with him that weren’t the sort of stuff you’d normally see from a professional ball player. He had a weird energy about him…far too erratic and intense for a sport like baseball. Every little thing he did, whether it be making a routine play at 3rd base or taking the turn at 1st after hitting a single had to be done in this overblown and grandiose style to try and make the play appear that much better than it really was. Lawrie also displayed a temper which quickly earned him a poor reputation amongst umpires throughout the league.

The trade to the A's prior to the 2015 season didn't help Lawrie because the Blue Jays got Josh Donaldson in return. All Donaldson did was beat out Mike Trout for the AL MVP and help the Jays to their first post-season appearance since winning the 1993 World Series. While's Lawrie's .260 BA, 16 HR and 60 RBI were decent they paled in comparison to Donaldson and Lawrie would be sent packing to the South Side of Chicago.

Yet Donaldson exhibited the very same tendencies as Lawrie. Consider this excerpt from an April 2017 Toronto Life article on Donaldson:

For all of Donaldson’s eccentricity, he’s deadly serious on the field. He stalks the diamond with seething intensity, his jersey frequently untucked and dirt streaked, not exactly looking for a fight but not averse to joining one, either. When Texas Rangers second baseman Rougned Odor clocked José Bautista in the jaw during a brawl last May, the blur you saw chasing after Odor, fist cocked, hair flapping in the breeze, was the team’s fiery third baseman. And when then–Los Angeles Angels third-base coach Mike Butcher and Donaldson got into a heated exchange during a game, Donaldson, in full view of the dugout camera, chopped an X at his crotch and invited Butcher to “suck my cock.” In Toronto, a city raised on hockey, this truculence plays well. (His mother, who draws the line at lewdness, did not approve.)

I don't if Brett Lawrie's mother approves of his conduct, but I suspect that if Lawrie hit 30 HR, drove in 100 runs, won an MVP and reached the post-season, he would still be a Jay and the team would be just fine with his intensity.

But what's past is past. Hopefully, this exile from baseball will motivate Lawrie to make the most of his opportunity and rein himself in just enough that he can smell the roses and his teammates can smell them with him.