Following a couple of injury-marred seasons, former University of Maine first team All-America East pitcher Cody Laweryson is healthy and throwing well again for the Minnesota Twins’ AA Wichita Wind Surge in the Texas League.
The 27-year-old righthander from Moscow, Maine is the closer for the Wind Surge and is a perfect five-for-five in save opportunities this season.
He is 0-2 with a 3.45 earned run average covering 15 games and 15 ⅔ innings. He has allowed 16 hits with 19 strikeouts and just four walks. He has had an outstanding May to the tune of a 0.96 ERA over 9 ⅓ innings.
He has allowed only six hits in May and has struck out 13 while walking three.
In his last outing, a scoreless inning against Tulsa on Wednesday, his four-seam fastball reached a career-high 97 miles-per-hour.
“I’m throwing a lot harder this year than I have the past few years,” said Laweryson on Friday afternoon. “I had typically been in the 90-93 range.”
He realized that he needed to up his velocity.
“In this day and age, this is what you have to do to hold serve,” explained Laweryson. “Everyone from the right side in a big league bullpen is throwing 94-96.”
He credited his velocity increase to having a healthy offseason for the first time in several years.
“I would run into nagging injuries at some point. But I was able to get into the weight room, I had a completely healthy throwing program and it carried into spring training,” said Laweryson.
“My [velocity] wasn’t completely there in spring training. It was more in the 92-93 range which is much harder than I usually throw during spring training. But it kept climbing and maybe it will keep going up,” said the former multi-sport star at Valley High School in Bingham.
His four-seam fastball is his bread-and-butter pitch and he also sprinkles in a slider and change-up.
“My fastball has been my best pitch my entire career and it gets better the harder I throw it,” he said.
He was told at the outset of the season that he would be the closer and would be used for just one inning most of the time.
“They told me they were going to use me in high-leverage situations late in the game. It was good to have an established role coming into the season,” he said. “In the past, there was a rotation in the bullpen so if it was your day to throw, you could be used in any situation.”
The 6-foot-4, 205-pound Laweryson said knowing he was going to be used for just one inning was advantageous.
“If hitters are only going to see me once, I can just go out and throw my best pitch. I don’t use my secondary pitches a ton. I live at the top of the strike zone with [my fastball],” said Laweryson. “That’s where I get most of my swings and misses. I’ve had a lot of success with it.”
Laweryson was a 14th round draft pick of the Minnesota Twins in 2019 (409th overall) after his All-America East first team campaign for UMaine that spring.
In 2022, he was chosen to the Texas League All-Star team after going 5-0 with a 1.06 ERA for Wichita after being promoted from Class A Cedar Rapids.
Between the two teams, he tossed 94 ⅓ innings and allowed only 66 hits and two homers with 111 strikeouts. He had a 1.62 ERA.
He spent 2023 in AAA with the St. Paul Saints and had a tough year, going 3-4 with a 4.80 ERA. He allowed 52 hits and 11 homers in 50 ⅔ innings.
“I learned AAA is pretty hard,” Laweryson said with a chuckle. “It is a big jump from AA and AAA. There were a lot of guys with five to six years of Major League experience in AAA who had faced some of the best pitchers in the world. They were really patient. They knew exactly what they wanted to hit and if you made a mistake over the middle of the plate, they made you pay.”
He said that “you have to be dialed in from pitch one” at the AAA level.
He also pointed out that they used the same baseballs in AAA that they use in the Major Leagues and the baseballs in the lower leagues “don’t fly as much” as the Major League balls.
“Plus the ball really flies in some of the AAA ballparks due to the elevation or the wind blowing out,” Laweryson said.
“I showed some flashes of success but it wasn’t my greatest year. I’m a better pitcher now than I was that year,” he added.
Laweryson has had to deal with hip, shoulder and oblique injuries the past two years and he said the oblique strain last season in Wichita had a lot to do with his 6.82 ERA.
“I was trying to catch up all year. It was like a throwaway year,” he said. “It was tough dealing with all of those injuries. But I’m feeling really good right now.”
His bounceback this season has kept his dream alive of pitching in the Major Leagues.
“I haven’t lost hope. Technically, this is my last year with the Twins unless they renew my contract. I’m trying to make up for last season now,” said Laweryson. “I want to come back to the Twins organization. They have treated me better than a lot of organizations would have treated me.”
He wants to keep pitching well so he can re-sign with the Twins or another organization and he is hoping his fastball stays around that 97 mph mark for the rest of the season.
