KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Michael Lorenzen has been trying to find himself on the mound over the past five years, and pitching in Denver’s high altitude with the Colorado Rockies this season didn’t help in the search.
Months of bad results led to him being designated for assignment Aug. 17 and released two days later, and though he kept throwing once home in Southern California, the 34-year-old “was content with being done, to be honest,” both with 2026 and maybe beyond that, too.
“It's been such a battle, going out knowing I have an A-version of myself, but I'm constantly presenting a C-plus version, no matter what I do, and it wears on you over five years, you know?” he said. “Then you go to Colorado and you experience that, that wears on you pretty good. So I was content. I was spending good time with the family (he and wife Cassi have two toddlers), enjoying it. But I was still throwing, just in case something popped up that I felt like was going to be a good experience. It had to be unique. If it wasn’t unique, I’d rather just be done.”
A few days after he got home, Shane Bieber suffered a teres major injury and the Toronto Blue Jays, in desperate need of professional innings, called with an opportunity that fit the bill. He signed Aug. 27 for a prorated portion of the major-league minimum, the Rockies on the hook for the remainder of his $8-million salary this year, and he’s got three appearances in, with the possibility of a start or bulk-inning work Wednesday in the series finale against the Athletics at Sacramento.
“Toronto’s a good spot, it's always been fun to go to, you have one team for an entire country, so obviously it's going to a big deal,” Lorenzen said of why the Blue Jays appealed to him. “I got to play for Philly, that was incredible, big market. It's the only other big market I've gotten to experience, in that regard. So Toronto seemed like a unique experience and the team is really good, obviously, and the AL is wide open. So it was a good opportunity.”
Dylan Cease starts Monday’s series opener, followed by Jose Soriano on Tuesday, with Max Scherzer lined up for Friday night in the first of three against the visiting Baltimore Orioles. But what the Blue Jays do around them for the final 18 games remains up in the air and is of vital importance with each outing carrying so much weight.
The ongoing flux on the pitching staff means there is opportunity and need for both Spencer Arrighetti, acquired for Daulton Varsho at the deadline, and Lorenzen to emerge as the latest lifesavers to help keep the Blue Jays afloat. Contributions from unexpected sources, such as Patrick Corbin early in the season when Cody Ponce went down and Spencer Miles after Eric Lauer struggled and was sent to the Los Angeles Dodgers, have helped give them a chance to land in the post-season despite all their injuries.
Pitching coach Pete Walker feels the adjustments Lorenzen has made since signing paid off Friday, when his fastball averaged a season-high 95.8 m.p.h. during a three-inning save, and described the righty as someone who “can certainly give us bulk innings and potentially more.”
“He could definitely fill some innings, quality innings, right now, we feel,” he added.
Underpinning that belief is what Lorenzen described as “finally finding my natural throw,” after years of constant adjustments that haven’t worked. He last felt like he was in his optimal motion, both with his arm and lower half, in 2021, and the variances in his slot since show just how much of a moving target it’s been.
That year, he threw from an average of 41 degrees, but dipped to 34 degrees in 2022, back up to 41 in 2023, when he was an all-star for the Detroit Tigers before being sent to Philadelphia at the deadline. In 2024, he went up further to 43 degrees, then back down to 41 in 2025 and is at 39 degrees this season.
“I’ve just been doing everything I can to survive each and every time I go out there and pitch,” said Lorenzen, who explained that his natural throw is “everything as a unit working together, because the lower half sets up the upper half and so you don't have one without the other.
“It's just the natural rhythm of when I was in college and when I was in high school,” he continued. “I threw hard, and why did I throw hard? You go through times where you have injuries and you're thinking it's your mechanics when really it's just, I did not know how to take care of my arm yet. So you're changing mechanics trying to stay healthy, and then you lose your natural ability to find tension and the rhythm that you had to throw a baseball. I lost mine after 2021.”
Even during his only all-star season, in 2021, when he posted a 3.58 ERA in 105.2 innings over 18 starts for the Tigers before he was traded, Lorenzen didn’t feel right. A big user of advanced metrics and other tools, he could see the gaps between his expected numbers and the actual results and understood it wasn’t sustainable.
“My BABIP was low (.266, relative to a league average of .295) and it was like, Here's a 2-0 fastball and it's just like barely mis-hit fly out to centre, or it's a lineout to centre, like pfft, this game is easy, one of those situations,” he said. “But I knew, and after I threw the no-hitter (for the Phillies on Aug. 9), I’m doing the same thing but the balls are leaving the yard and they're not hit at guys. I don't want to have to rely on luck like that and I didn't have to rely on luck like that when I had better stuff.”
Lorenezen sat 96.6 m.p.h. with his fastball in 2021, dropping to 94.7 in 2022 to 94 this year. In his first two outings with the Blue Jays, he was 93.4 and 93.8 before the jump to 95.8 Friday, fuelled by some tweaks he’s made with various biomechanical data the club’s provided.
“They had a couple missing pieces to the puzzle. I had some of the pieces, but I didn't have them all,” said Lorenzen. “It took them five, six days of conversations, me and them back and forth on everything that I've tried, and we were able to put our finger on it. And I haven't been able to do that for five years. …
“The game's a lot easier when I just have my natural throw and I don't have to think about stuff,” he continued. “My four-seam is coming out hotter, everything just comes out better, just more life to it. They've helped me identify that, which has been absolutely insane. I'm really happy about it.”
Even more so if better results follow, at a time the Blue Jays really need them.
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