Lucas Luetge Quietly Reaches Major Milestone With Yankees
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NEW YORK — Save for an occasional peek at the scoreboard, Lucas Luetge doesn't check his stats at all during the season.
So as the left-hander prepared to kick off his daily pregame routine in the hours leading up to first pitch on Friday night, another day at the office for the 35-year-old reliever, Luetge had absolutely no clue that he was one call to the bullpen away from his 100th appearance with the Yankees.
Beyond the flashiness of triple digits, that number means absolutely nothing. Luetge didn't receive an extra ovation as he jogged in from the 'pen later that night, he wasn't financially compensated and the milestone wasn't even mentioned in the organization's postgame notes. But for a pitcher that was out of the game for six years, unsure if he'd ever dig his spikes into a big-league mound again as he bounced around in the minor leagues, 100 appearances is truly something special.
"My goal is to come in and pitch a lot and to be at 100, it's pretty cool, especially with the Yankees," Luetge said before Friday night's game after learning where he stood in the games played column. "I try to be as consistent as I can and let the coaches know what they're gonna get every time. To do that 100 times is great."
Like his 100th outing in a Yankees uniform—1.1 scoreless innings with his team already trailing by multiple runs—Luetge's introduction to the organization received no pomp and circumstance.
The southpaw was a non-roster invitee in spring training last year, an aging arm looking to finally earn a roster spot and put an end to a crusade that dated back to his most recent MLB appearance in April of 2015. With a spectacular spring, Luetge found himself suiting up in pinstripes for Opening Day festivities in the Bronx. He had defied the odds, making his triumphant return to the show with his Yankees debut two days later.
READ: How Yankees' Lucas Luetge Completed His Baseball Odyssey With a Resurgence in Pinstripes
Over the next 17 months, Luetge turned a feel-good story into one of the best decisions the Yankees have made in regards to their pitching staff in these last few years. Seriously, that's not an exaggeration. Some of Luetge's numbers are legitimately up there with some of the best pitchers in all of Major League Baseball, he just continuously flies under the radar.
Luetge has pitched to the tune of a 2.63 ERA in his Yankees career across 123 innings. It doesn't matter what type of role Luetge has pitched in, he's toed the slab with consistency and effectiveness, producing 75 scoreless outings over his first 100.
To put that into perspective, Luetge has the 10th-best ERA among all MLB pitchers that have thrown 120-plus innings since the beginning of the 2021 season. Among that same crowd of pitchers, Luetge has the best hard hit percentage (27.4%).
Think about that for a second.
No pitcher who has thrown more than 120 innings in the last two seasons has done a better job than Lucas Luetge at limiting hard contact (which is defined as batted balls that are hit at 95 mph or higher). This season alone, he has a significant cushion atop the hard hit percentage leaderboard (22.1% in 2022).
His average exit velocity since joining the Yankees is 85.8 mph, the seventh-best mark in baseball.
Those numbers are better than Corbin Burnes, Shohei Ohtani, Emmanuel Clase, Jacob deGrom and so many more.
Whittle that field down to just relievers, subtracting Luetge's only career start last summer—when he opened a game for two innings in Kansas City—and Luetge has the 14th-highest fWAR (2.2) among all relievers across the last two seasons.
Luetge has been able to revitalize his career in pinstripes, completely distancing himself from his first few years in baseball when he pitched for the Mariners and posted a 4.35 ERA in 111 outings from 2012 to 2015.
Asked what his biggest key to success over these last two years has been, Luetge didn't mention his devastating curveball, a pitch opponents are hitting .070 (5-for-71) against since last spring, or his sweeping slider. Instead, the reliever singled out his mentality, a mature approach to a sport rooted in failure.
"I just try not to overthink things," he said. "Baseball is hard enough as it is when you start getting in your head and thinking about what your role is or what the situation is. You make things tougher on yourself. I don't think about any outside things. If I haven't pitched in 10 days, it doesn't matter. If I pitch every day, it doesn't matter. I always say, once you go out there, it's either you execute or you don't. That's my game plan. Just not overthink things, have fun and just enjoy it."
A fan of another team might think Luetge is strictly a high-leverage reliever reading those numbers. Sure, the left-hander has worked in plenty of situations with the game on the line over the last two seasons (and had his fair share of clunkers, like all pitchers do), but anecdotally it seems the vast majority of his outings come in situations where he's either been summoned to extinguish an opponent's rally or eat innings to bridge the gap between New York's starter and their true late-inning relievers. Of his 100 appearances, 38 of them have been for more than three outs as well, making him a valuable multi-inning piece for manager Aaron Boone as well.
His 'pen pal Ron Marinaccio divulged on Friday that Luetge refers to himself as a "mop-up guy," uttering the phrase while gesturing in air quotes.
"Our mop-up guy is able to come in in high-leverage situations and you can be pretty confident he's gonna give you just as much a chance to get those guys out as the next guy," Marinaccio said. "He's been pitching out of his mind these last two years. So maybe it's not out of his mind. He's just a good pitcher."
Marinaccio added that Luetge is an incredible teammate off the field. He might be the oldest member of New York's pitching staff, but age hasn't impacted his ability to fit right in with the Yankees' youth movement.
"He's 35, but when you're hanging out, he's just one of your buddies. Like he's another 28-year-old in the bullpen," Marinaccio said. "He keeps it light and it's nice to have a guy like him to go to. He's been there, done that. At the same time, he's almost young to the game too, so he can relate to the younger guys as well since he had the long layoff before last year.
"A lot of guys would have given up with what he went through, but he kept going and now, he's making more of a career for himself."
Similar to how it was challenging to place expectations on Luetge at the beginning of his career with the Yankees, it's hard to project the reliever's future. Who knows if he can keep producing at this dependable clip.
What you can count on is that Luetge will continue to soak up every moment, grateful for an opportunity and a locker in a big-league clubhouse because he knows what it's like to be on the outside looking in. Factor in his family's support—with his wife and three kids cheering him on—and he has all the motivation he'll ever need.
"I just show up every day happy to be here," he said, thinking back on his path to pinstripes. "It helps me remind myself when I am in a bad mood or grumpy about whatever the situation might be. It could always be worse."
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