Joey

Lucchesi

Pitching exclusively as a reliever for the first time at age 32, Lucchesi had a 3.76 ERA in 38 1/3 innings out of the Giants pen. He might get a modest one-year deal elsewhere, but teams will mostly be interested him on a minor league contract.

This is an interesting one. The Giants didn’t announce any roster moves prior to Sunday night’s game against the Dodgers, though there were reports that Kyle Harrison and Jordan Hicks were going to be dealt to the Red Sox in the Rafael Devers deal. Then Lucchesi suddenly shows up and starts warming up in the bullpen, only to enter in the fifth inning without announcement that he was ever on the roster. We’ll assume that means the Red Sox’ deal is pretty far along and will be announced shortly, but who knows at this point.

There was virtually zero chance for Winn, who is still making his way back from last year’s elbow surgery, to break camp in the majors this spring, especially with Hayden Birdsong and Landen Roupp pitching exceptionally. The 27-year-old righty will head back to Triple-A as extra organizational depth to open the regular season.

The contract will pay Lucchesi $1.5 million if he pitches MLB innings this season. The 31-year-old made just two starts for the Mets in 2024 and pitched to a 4.70 ERA, 1.48 WHIP, and 86/56 K/BB ratio in 115 innings at Triple-A Syracuse. He figures to just be organization depth or a possible long-reliever out of the bullpen for the Giants in 2025.

Lucchesi made a pair of starts last year for the Mets and wound up making 22 appearances (19 starts) over three years dating back to 2021. The 31-year-old southpaw’s time with the organization is over and he’ll likely have to settle for a minor league contract with an invitation to spring training. He’s a solid emergency organizational depth option, but doesn’t really offer much upside at this point.

Lucchesi took the loss, but he gave the Mets exactly what they wanted, eating six innings in a game they didn’t need to win. That he was effective was simply a nice bonus. Lucchesi isn’t likely to be included on any of the Mets’ postseason rosters going forward.

Lucchesi will start Game 2 against the Braves with the Mets having clinched a postseason spot. The veteran has made just one start in the majors this season, giving up five runs in 4 1/3 innings against the Phillies on May 15. He had a 4.70 ERA in 115 innings for Syracuse.

Lucchesi will stick around with New York as emergency starting pitching depth after passing through waivers unclaimed earlier this week. The 31-year-old southpaw made one start earlier this year for the Mets and holds a respectable 4.14 ERA, 1.28 WHIP and 383/133 K/BB ratio across 388 2/3 innings (80 appearances, 76 starts) in the big leagues dating back to 2018.

Lucchesi has been removed from New York’s 40-man roster to make room for newly-acquired reliever Phil Maton. The 31-year-old lefty has made only one start this season for the Mets. He figures to generate some interest on waivers in the coming days.

The Mets wanted extra bullpen insurance with a long stretch of games coming up, so they optioned Joey Lucchesi, who had just started on Wednesday to bring up Walker. The 29-year-old has thrown three scoreless innings at the big league level so far this year with three strikeouts and one walk. His time in New York doesn’t figure to be long since he will likely be the next man down when the Mets need a starter again.