Q&A: Lawrie reflects on lost season
Jay sees better times ahead once club healthy
In this season of unmet expectations for the Blue Jays, Brett Lawrie is one of the few who lived up to his billing. No, he didn’t hit 25 home runs or steal 30 bases as some projected he might and many still believe he’s capable of doing. But the ever-revved 22-year-old was almost always the team’s most exciting player, for better or worse. Whether he was making a diving stab at third base, getting thrown out trying to steal home, bouncing a batting helmet off an umpire or taking a header down a deep camera bay at Yankee Stadium, there was rarely a dull moment for the Langley Flash. On the eve of the end of his first full season in the majors, Lawrie, one of the club’s young cornerstones, told the Star he believes the Jays are contenders when healthy, and he hopes manager John Farrell returns for next season. The following is an edited transcript.
Q: How would you rate your own performance in your first full season in the majors? Is there any part of your game you’d like to improve?
A: I think I’ve had a fairly good season. Everyone makes mistakes but you know, I feel like I’ve had a good season. I gave all I had every single game, I put it all out there and I left it all out there. It’s tough to improve things at game speed. I mean, sure I made a couple mistakes baserunning, but those things you got to learn in the game and only in a game situation. Obviously I know for next time.
Q: You hit nine home runs last year in just 43 games. This year you hit for a good average, but much less power — 11 homers in 124 games. Do you think you can still tap into the power you showed last year?
A: I know I’ve got power; everyone knows I’ve got power. But I can’t force home runs, they just got to happen themselves. I just got to get on a bit of a roll. I’ve hit a couple lately. I feel like I’ve swung the bat relatively well. I feel like I’ve made good strides. Pitchers have pitched me differently than last year and I feel like I’ve done a lot of work myself to adjust to that. Obviously my average didn’t just fall off. I’ve kind of kept it what I wanted it to be and kind of adjusted on the fly. That’s what you have to do when you’re up here: you’ve got to be able to adjust on the fly and if you don’t, they’re going to keep pounding the same spots until you make your own adjustments. So I feel like I’ve done a good job from that aspect.
Q: What did you learn most about yourself this year as a player?
A: That it’s a long year and you just got to stick with the grind and just know that there’s always another game and you just got to keep going and keep going until it’s over.
Q: For the team as a whole, how would you rate the season?
A: Obviously it’s a fail because our goal at the beginning of the season was to make the playoffs and that didn’t happen, so we didn’t accomplish our goal. But at the same time I think there are positives. I feel like Alex (GM Anthopoulos) has done a great job by making some moves and doing what he feels is going to help us. I applaud him for trying to help our team, help our organization out and try to make a push towards the post-season. Hopefully we’re going to come back next year and get this thing going. It’ll be good to get all our guys back. You need Jose Bautista, you need him in the lineup. We need all your guys. It’s tough to be able to compete, especially in the AL East, when you’re not healthy. Once we get our guys back I think the train’s just going to keep rolling and we can go into spring training with a positive frame of mind and put this year behind us.
Q: Were the injuries the most disappointing part of the season?
A: I think when you got three of your five starters go down within four days of each other, yeah, we got some problems. Then all of a sudden we’ve got to go into scramble mode and just grab guys and just throw them into the mix and say, “Here ya go,” when they haven’t been preparing themselves to do that at all. What happened was just totally freaky. I feel everybody who came up did the best they could, but obviously that wasn’t enough to get us to the post- season.
Q: Before the season started there was a lot of hype around the team, a lot of talk about taking a big step forward and contending for the post-season, especially with the extra wild card. Do you think expectations were too high?
A: No, not at all. Because I feel like we still are that team. We just took two out of four from the Yankees, so it’s there. It’s just about doing it.
Q: What do you think this team needs, then, to take that extra step forward?
A: I think a lot of it has to do with staying healthy. I mean, you can’t win games when you don’t have all your guys. A guy like Jose Bautista, who has hit 54 home runs in a season, to not have him in your lineup is obviously a detriment. It changes the way other teams attack our team. It takes away pitches from other hitters. When you don’t have all your guys, you got to go into battle mode and grind, and I feel like we’ve been doing that for a good portion of the season.
Q: In the final two weeks of the season there’s been a lot of criticism aimed at the clubhouse culture here, that it lacks accountability. First surrounding the Yunel Escobar incident, then in Omar Vizquel’s claim that the coaching staff hasn’t held young players accountable. In your opinion, are there any issues in this clubhouse?
A: No, not that I’ve seen. I can’t comment on what Omar said, that’s not my place. But as far as I can see, everyone’s pretty cool. I don’t see any problems here.
Q: What did you think of John Farrell in his second year as manager? Would you like to see him back?
A: Yeah, I think he’s a good fit for us. I think he does the right things for our team, he backs us up as you saw (Monday when Farrell was ejected in the bottom of the 10th for arguing a call with umpire Marvin Hudson). That’s what a good team needs.