Brett Lawrie

Brett Russell Lawrie (born January 18, 1990) is a Canadian former professional baseball third baseman.

He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Toronto Blue Jays, Oakland Athletics, and Chicago White Sox.

While playing high school baseball for the Langley Blaze of the British Columbia Premier Baseball League, Lawrie was selected with the 16th overall pick in the 2008 Major League Baseball draft by the Milwaukee Brewers.

The selection of Lawrie was the fourth-highest a Canadian player has ever been drafted, behind only Jeff Francis, Adam Loewen, and Phillippe Aumont, and was the highest a Canadian position player has ever been drafted.

Although he was used primarily as a catcher for the Blaze, Lawrie transitioned to second base when he was assigned to the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers of the Midwest League to begin the 2009 season.

He was selected to play for the World Team at the 2009 MLB All-Star Futures Game at Busch Stadium in St. Louis.

He was promoted to the Double-A Huntsville Stars in mid-August.

On June 23, Lawrie was selected to the 2010 Futures Games, his second selection.

Lawrie finished the 2010 season with a .285 batting average, eight home runs, 63 RBIs, 90 runs, 16 triples and 30 stolen bases in 135 games with Huntsville.

For his efforts he was named to the Southern League Post-Season All-Star team on September 1, 2010.

Considered by many to be one of Milwaukee's top prospects, he was traded on December 6, 2010, to the Toronto Blue Jays for starting pitcher Shaun Marcum.

Despite Lawrie already having switched positions from catcher to second base after the Brewers drafted him, the Blue Jays moved Lawrie to third base.

On May 31, Lawrie was hit in the hand by a pitch and left the game with what was initially believed to be a broken hand.

X-rays were negative and he was considered day-to-day, until it was later revealed by CAT scan that there was a non-displaced fracture, and he was expected to miss 2–3 weeks.

After a brief stint in Single-A Dunedin ending with a game where he was hit by a pitch twice, Lawrie was promoted back to Triple-A Las Vegas on July 18, 2011.

He was named the third baseman on Baseball America's 2011 Minor League All Star team.

On August 4, 2011, Lawrie was called up to the Toronto Blue Jays.

Travis Snider was optioned to Triple-A to make room for Lawrie.

He made his debut on August 5 against the Baltimore Orioles.

In his first career at-bat, he recorded his first career hit and RBI.

He finished 2-for–4 with one RBI and a fielding error.

Two games later, he hit his first career home run, a solo shot off of starter Alfredo Simón.

In his second game at home on August 10, Lawrie recorded his first career grand slam, off of Oakland reliever Craig Breslow.

The grand slam was also his first hit at the Rogers Centre.

In the following series against the Los Angeles Angels, Lawrie recorded his first career triple and stolen base.

On September 5, Lawrie hit his first career walk-off home run, a solo shot in the 11th inning off reliever Dan Wheeler to defeat the Boston Red Sox 1–0.

Lawrie's first season ended prematurely when, on September 21, he fractured the middle finger on his right hand while fielding during batting practice.

He finished his first season with a batting average of .293, nine home runs, 26 runs scored, seven stolen bases and 25 RBIs in 161 plate appearances.

On May 1, 2012, Lawrie hit a game-winning, walk-off solo home run in the bottom of the 9th inning to give the Blue Jays an 8–7 win against the Texas Rangers.

In a game against the Tampa Bay Rays on May 15, Lawrie was ejected from a game after objecting to being called out following consecutive questionable strike calls by umpire Bill Miller.

The two pitches in question were shown by replay and through computerized strike zone analysis to not be in the strike zone.

After both pitches, Lawrie started down the baseline, only to hear the strike call.

Upon the strikeout call, Lawrie turned and yelled, prompting Miller to eject him.

Lawrie threw his helmet on the ground, which then bounced and made contact with Miller.

Manager John Farrell was also ejected after arguing with Miller.

Lawrie was suspended for four games by Major League Baseball, and initially appealed the suspension but dropped the appeal on May 17.

After a 7–4 loss to the Boston Red Sox on June 2, Lawrie was present at the Toronto Eaton Centre when a shooting took place.

Lawrie, who was unharmed, posted on Twitter about the incident and was credited by some news outlets with breaking the story.

On November 4, Lawrie was awarded the Wilson fielding award for defensive play at third base.

Lawrie began the 2013 season on the disabled list, and made his season debut on April 16 against the Chicago White Sox, going 0-3 with an RBI.