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Former Mets Pitcher Heads To Japan To Rehab His Reputation
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- Former Mets Pitcher Heads To Japan To Rehab His Reputation
Former New York Mets starter Joey Lucchesi had a rough go of it in Anaheim for the Los Angeles Angels in earlier this year, and now he's headed to Japan to try and rehabilitate his reputation, according to a report from Steve Adams of MLBTradeRumors.com , and he'll now join the rotation of the Chiba Lotte Marines in the Nippon Professional Baseball league.
Lucchesi has bounced around a lot, with his latest successful stint coming with the San Francisco Giants . Earlier in his career Lucchesi was had some success with the Mets, and he found himself as a rotation starter with the San Diego Padres , but at this point in his career the 33-year old lefthander is basically a journeyman.
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The former starter pitched just 3-1/3 innings this year, and he got tagged for five earned runs. The Angels quickly ran out of patience with him, but Lucchesi had mroe success at Triple-A Salt Lake. He threw 33-1/3 innings with a 3.24 ERA with a high strikeout rate, a low walk rate and the ability to keep contact on the ground. According to Adams, this move is probably due to language in his contract about potential foreign opportunies that has come to fruition.
Lucchesi has pitched a total of 416-2/3 innings in the majors, and according to Adams his career 4.15 ERA is a near identical match to the 4.14 mark he posted in his first two seasons as a member of San Diego 's rotation. He occasionally hit that same number with the Mets, too. Lucchesi doesn't throw particularly hard or miss bats at a high level, the writer added, but his secondary pitches have graded out as effective pitches in the majors.
He'll spend the remainder of the season in Japan — likely earning more than he'd have secured on a minor league deal in North America — and reassess his market in the offseason.
In theory Lucchesi could be a candidate to rejoin the Mets if he pitches well in Japan, as the Mets will be making a lot of moves and could have room in their rotation. It's something to watch, but the first step will be seeing how many moves they make at the trade deadline. We still have no idea what direction will be taking after that, so there are miles to go before they'd consider adding a starter like Lucchesi to the end of their rotation.
