Guardians failing to sign local standout looks even worse after masterful performance

As a kid, Eric Lauer used to go to Jacobs Field and watch the Guardians in the hope of going home and emulating the aces he saw on the mound. 

C.C. Sabathia. Cliff Lee. He even paid attention to some of the position players. 

“My first grade teacher was Jim Thome’s, like, cousin and I was just fascinated by that,” Lauer said with a laugh. 

On Tuesday, Lauer did his imitation of all of those aces when he stymied the Guardians’ lineup across 5 1/3 dominant innings in Toronto’s 10-6 win over Cleveland in Tuesday’s series opener between the two teams. 

It meant a little more for the Elyria, Ohio native, who grew up a huge Indians fan.

Guardians failing to sign local standout looks even worse after masterful performance

Not only was it a loss that could come back to hurt the Guardians at the end of the season since they’re trailing the Blue Jays in the Wild Card race, but it was also a bold-faced reminder of how the Guardians made a fatal mistake by not going after Lauer. 

Lauer has been an absolute revolution for the Blue Jays this year, as he now has a 2.21 ERA in 40 2/3 innings with the Blue Jays this year after Tuesday’s game. 

While the Blue Jays are ahead of the Guardians in the American League Wild Card standings, they’ve been scrambling to piece together a rotation all season after Max Scherzer only lasted three innings in his first start of the year before suffering a thumb injury that’s kept him on the shelf since. 

At various points this season, the Blue Jays tried guys like Easton Lucas and José Ureña in ther rotation, but nothing seemed to stick. Then Lauer entered the fold. 

The Blue Jays called him up at the end of April, where he allowed two runs in four innings. He worked as a bulk/relief option in his first 26 innings of the year before moving to the rotation full time last week, with Tuesday’s start standing out as the best of his season. 

He worked around some traffic on the basepaths and was pulled after allowing a solo home run to Carlos Santana, but the start also marked the first time this year where he faced a lineup for the third time. 

And instead of Lauer doing this as an opponent on the mound he grew up watching, he could have been doing that there on a near-daily basis.

Lauer, who grew up in nearby Grafton and attended Kent State, broke into MLB with the San Diego Padres before heading to the Brewers as a part of the Trent Grisham deal.

He had solid seasons in 2021 and ‘22 with the Brewers before bouncing around on minor league deals with the Pirates and Astros before ending his season with the KBO's Korea Tigers.

He signed a minor league deal with the Blue Jays, and the rest is history. But it could be history for the Guardians. 

Lauer’s a local product so he’s likely been on Cleveland’s radar from the time before he won the National Pitcher of the Year Award at Kent State. 

And they had plenty of chances to sign him over the past two years but instead, for whatever reason, looked elsewhere and instead ran out guys like Xzavion Curry, Spencer Howard and the ghost of Carlos Carrasco. 

“I feel like it’s something as a baseball player in general,” Lauer said when asked about pitching in Cleveland. “You grow up watching that team and rooting for that team and wanting to play for that  specific team and going back to the field I came to as a kid and trying to do that for someone else is special.”

Lauer also outdueled Logan Allen on Tuesday, who was once thought of as the best left-handed pitcher in Cleveland’s system. Now he may have the shortest leash of everyone in the starting rotation.

It looks like the Blue Jays and Guardians will be battling each other for a postseason spot for most of the season, which means Lauer will have plenty of chances to break his hometown team’s heart again. 

“I loved watching baseball (as a kid) and loved watching the Indians,” Lauer said.