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Lauer, 30, has dazzled since being called up at the end of April and, even with Wednesday’s scheduled return of Max Scherzer, has forced himself into the Jays rotation.

In 10 appearances, the left-hander has allowed just 22 hits over 35 1/3 innings, holding opponents to a .176 batting average. He’s walked 11 while striking out 36 and has a 1.72 ERA in June.

Every big-league clubhouse is full of pitchers who can light up the radar gun, but Lauer is doing all this with a fastball averaging just 91.8 miles per hour.

“I’ve always been a聽pitcher,” the bearded lefty said in an interview for an upcoming episode of “Deep Left Field,” the Star’s baseball podcast. “I can locate things and move fastballs around. My whole game has always been using my off-speed stuff to make my fastball play up.”

It’s working. Opponents are hitting a minuscule .107 off that 92-m.p.h. heater this year.

The Ohio native signed a minor-league deal in the winter after two lost seasons. In 2021 and 2022 with the Milwaukee Brewers, he was a combined 18-12 with a 3.47 ERA and 1.19 WHIP in 277 1/3 innings. A shoulder injury in 2023 knocked Lauer off his axis, but there was also something else.

“I got to a point where I felt so secure in where I was that I almost started losing that drive that you need to stay in the game,” Lauer admitted. “I got a little complacent ... and then baseball kind of punched me in the mouth.”

A 6.56 ERA with the Brewers in 2023. Released by the Pittsburgh Pirates and Houston Astros in 2024. Two months in South Korea.

Given a chance by the Jays this spring, he wanted to impress the brass with how hard he could throw.

“Right away聽鈥� I think it might have been in my first bullpen聽鈥� I (said) I feel like I have a little bit more (velocity),” said Lauer. “And (pitching coach Pete Walker said) ‘I don’t care’ ... That’s when the switch flipped for me. I can go back to being the chess-match pitcher that I like to be 聽... instead of just chasing velo.”

Walker recalls the conversation.

“From day one, he appeared to be polished and someone who had a plan,” said Walker. “I wasn’t concerned about what was in the tank or what more there was. It was just about him locating his pitches, changing speeds and utilizing his breaking pitches.”

Walker believes with the way Lauer pitches, it doesn’t matter whether he throws 92 or 95.

“He’s got plenty (of velocity); he’s got a sneaky fastball,” said the Jays’ 13th-year pitching guru. “It gets on guys and it gets by guys.”

Lauer pitched on playoff teams in Milwaukee with rotations headed by Cy Young winner Corbin Burnes. In Toronto, he has taken a shine to one starter in particular.

“I love watching (Jos茅) Berr铆os,” said Lauer. “Him more than anybody, I like watching how he goes about his business. There’s a reason they call him La Makina because he’s an absolute machine every day. I don’t even know if he notices it when I’m sitting there watching him do his stuff, but he’s one of the guys that I really look up to in the way he carries himself and the work he puts in.”

The Jays’ pitchers go to the weight room together every day, but Berr铆os, who has never missed a start in his decade in the majors, hadn’t noticed Lauer keeping an eye on him.

“That’s the way I try to be a leader: show up, do my routine and try to always be there for my teammates,” said Berr铆os.

Lauer recalls a piece of advice from former big-leaguer Mike Birkbeck, his college pitching coach at Kent State, who said that pitching is just playing catch at a high rate of speed.

“I’m not out there worried about giving up a hit or a double or not letting a run score,” Lauer said. “The only thing I truly control is how the ball comes out of my hand. If I can do that聽... the numbers and the odds are in my favour.”

He’ll take that mindset into Tuesday’s start in Cleveland, trying to snap the Jays out of a slump that has seen them win just three of their last nine games.