2 Mets players who will maintain their hot starts, 1 who won’t

3) NY Mets pitcher Joey Lucchesi is off to a hot start we shouldn’t expect him to maintain

One great start and another good one isn’t enough for anyone to start talking about keeping Joey Lucchesi in the starting rotation for the rest of his career. Sure, while the Mets need an arm and David Peterson isn’t performing well, give him his chances.

Lucchesi tossed 7 innings in his 2023 debut for the Mets and struck out 9 San Francisco Giants hitters. This came after 3 starts in Triple-A where he combined to go 2-0 with a 2.30 ERA in 15.2 innings. Many fans were delighted to see the team acquire him ahead of the 2021 season for depth. Just as he was beginning to go deeper into games as a starter, the Tommy John bug bit him and he was out for the rest of the year and for all of 2022 with the exception of 12.2 minor league frames.

His most recent outing was promising but more of what we should expect. He went 5.1 and gave up 3 earned runs while striking out 3 Washington Nationals batters. The Mets barely won the game. In fact, since Lucchesi’s win on April 21, the only other game the team has been victorious in was his start on April 27.

Appearing fully healthy and looking like a capable big league arm, this hot start is great to see yet not manageable for a guy whose resume has him as more of a back-of-the-rotation arm at best. That’s not to say Lucchesi is useless for the Mets. On the contrary, he’s pretty important.

We’ll have to circle back to Lucchesi after a few more starts to see if this hot start is something he can maintain. Have your doubts, Mets fans. Lucchesi is a solid number five or six starter. Remove that overpriced rookie card of his from your eBay “buy now” card immediately.