Joey Lucchesi moves ahead of David Peterson in the pitching depth power rankings

Seven shutout innings in 2023 will catch anyone’s attention, especially when it’s straight through, on the road, and on short notice. New York Mets pitcher Joey Lucchesi was summoned to the majors to start on Friday night against the San Francisco Giants. His late-notice start included 9 strikeouts. This was no lucky 7 innings. He managed to fan the final 3 batters he faced.

The Mets were forced to turn his way due to the piling up of injuries to the starting staff and suspension of Max Scherzer. Lucchesi’s roster spot is more of a replacement for Carlos Carrasco whose return to action remains a big unknown.

Regardless of Carrasco’s health, it looks like Lucchesi is one of the more favorable Mets options to stick in the rotation. We’ll know more about his place with the team today with David Peterson scheduled to toe the rubber.

The NY Mets rotation has room for Joey Lucchesi on a more permanent basis

Depending on how the team manipulates the roster to get through the absence of Scherzer for 10 games, Lucchesi may have to go down only to later come up. Jose Butto was solid enough in his recent start for them where he could receive yet another spot start. We’ll see what the Mets do.

Long-term, this debut outing for Lucchesi is a promising one. They’re still waiting on the return of Justin Verlander which could come within the next two weeks if we’re lucky. Scherzer will return from his suspension angrier than ever soon enough. By then, we’ll know a little bit more about who slots in behind the aces.

The power rankings for the Mets pitching depth right now looks a little something like this

1) Tylor Megill
2) Joey Lucchesi
3) David Peterson
4) Jose Butto
5) Anyone healthy

Many of us were confident in the Mets starting pitching depth heading into this season. Who knew that on April 21 they would’ve already dipped as deeply as they have? Those four have started 10 of the team’s 21 games thus far. If that was the only information you had, you’d think we’d have a disaster on our hands.

We’ve already seen how important it will be to tap into these resources to help get the Mets through this season. Lucchesi has more to prove. So does Peterson. Heck, even Megill must remain reliable. We shouldn’t be surprised if none stay in the majors all season long. After Friday’s start, we should feel really good about where this team is.