Veteran left-hander Lucas Luetge has opted out of his minor league deal with the Red Sox and become a free agent, according to Katie Morrison-O’Day of MassLive. The lefty first signed with the Red Sox back in February but will now return to free agency in search of a better deal elsewhere.
Luetge, 37, is a veteran of seven MLB seasons who first made his big league debut back in 2012 as a member of the Mariners. He spent his time with Seattle shuttling between the major and minor leagues, during which time he posted a middling 4.35 ERA with a 4.27 FIP in 89 big league innings with a similar 4.21 ERA across 94 appearances in the minors. While Luetge enjoyed a strong 47.7% groundball rate in the majors during his years in Seattle, a lackluster 19% strikeout rate combined with an elevated 12.1% walk rate seemingly limited his potential, leaving him to be outrighted off the Mariners’ 40-man roster in late 2015.
He elected free agency shortly thereafter but would not return to the majors until 2021, when he joined the Yankees as a member of their bullpen. The lefty enjoyed the best seasons of his career by far when in the Bronx as he posted a sterling 2.71 ERA with a 2.92 FIP in 129 2/3 innings of work for the club across the 2021 and ’22 seasons. His strikeout rate ticked up to a strong 25% while he slashed his walk rate to just 5.8%. While those improvements came at the expense of his groundball rate (39% with the Yankees), the results more than justified his change in approach and made it somewhat surprising when the club designated him for assignment during the 2022-23 offseason.
He was traded to the Braves shortly thereafter and opened the 2023 campaign in their bullpen, though he didn’t last long in Atlanta after allowing eleven runs in 9 2/3 innings of work across his first nine appearances as a Brave. He was outrighted to the minor leagues but remained with the club and returned to the big leagues with them to throw four scoreless innings across three appearances down the stretch, but that improvement and his middling work with the club’s Triple-A affiliate (3.75 ERA in 24 frames) weren’t enough to convince the Braves to retain Luetge for the 2024 campaign.
Back in free agency for the first time since signing with the Yankees, Luetge signed on with the Red Sox. He never broke into the big leagues with the club, though he’s looked quite impressive in 41 2/3 innings of work for Triple-A Worcester with a 3.02 ERA and a solid 26.7% strikeout rate. Given the constant interest around the league in left-handed relief depth, it would hardly be a surprise if a club saw Luetge’s success in the minor leagues with Boston and his previous success with the Yankees and decided to bring him into the organization, whether as a non-roster depth option on a minor league deal or perhaps even as an immediate member of the big league bullpen.
A long time ago, he took part in a Mariners no-hiitter.
Red Sox pitchers can’t keep the ball in the park, Cutter 4 yesterday and Houk already 2 today in 4 innings
Nothing to do with the post.
Had everything to do with the post! Red Sox are leaking runs and he has pitched well in AAA and yet we traded prospects away rather than call him up. I can see the point Teddy was making.
Trot – Red Sox pitching has been even worse than the stats indicate.
For instance last night Houck should have been charged with a 7th earned run, but the Rangers 3B coach inexplicably sent a runner home on a high-risk play. If he hadn’t, it would have been bases loaded with no outs.
It was absolutely idiotic to take the risk with nobody out, they are fortunate it didn’t cost them the game.
Even if you weren’t going to call him up he was tradable for prospects, even a lottery ticket, as he hadn’t been on the 40 man to my memory.
He’s 37 years old and pitching in the minors.
Joe, he looked good in AAA and teams.were paying prospects for relievers with 5.xx and 6.xx ERAs.
Someone who wanted more than they’d gotten at the deadline would’ve given a lottery ticket or two, instead of nothing.
teams weren’t paying that for guys pitching in the minors over the age of 30. They weren’t getting a lottery ticket for him of anything or of any real value
Age has nothing to do with it, or, do.you argue Jansen and Martin are washed up bums with no value?
All that matters are results, and, that you can’t trade for much of anything post deadline unless they fit the restrictions, like this guy
GA: I’d like to believe you’re smart enough to realize the difference between an effective to all star level MLB players above the age of 30 vs a guy pushing 38 in the minors because the comparison you’re trying to make between Luttage and those two doesn’t exist
As you all that matters are results. Luttege hasn’t had them in the majors in about two seasons.. Find a trade where a guy his age with his lack MLB results in the minors was trading for anything.
TF – I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but before today’s game Cora announced that because Devers has been playing so well at 3B he has decided to end the discussion of moving him as he will be there for several more years.
He also said he expects Devers to get even better next year because he’s young and because Story will be back, as this year’s shortstop fill-ins (Rafaela, Hamilton, etc) do not have the great range Story has. Story’s better range will mean Devers doesn’t have to cover for shortstop anymore.
Well they won today, we should all thank the Rangers for trading Lorenzen as Pennington blew the game by immediately giving up a 3-run shot to my man Abreu, his second homerun of the game. All the announcers were saying he probably will win Rookie of the Year, he has the highest OPS of all MLB rookies!
Acell – you have an interesting way of counting time or looking at things.
A good 2021, a good 2022, a rough start to 2023 but went down.and came back up to end 2023 with 4 scoreless. Signed a pact with the sox who held him back in AAA despite good production.
There’s value there, even more so as one of only a handful of guys eligible to be traded at this point to toss right in a bullpen
you’re weakly grasping at straws GA. He had no value. No one was giving up anything meaningful for a guy who hasn’t pitched well in the majors since 2022 which is almost two season ago. Your funny math isn’t working nor is you moving the goalposts
Again find a trade that’s happen where a player on a minor league contract at both Luttege’s age and lack of meaningful MLB production in as I said almost 2 seasons.
Houck,Bello,Crawford,Paxton, & Pivetta are it. They would all benefit from an extra day between starts. Go to a six man rotation with Cooper C. and hope the rest gives the other five a boost. With Martin, Slaton & Liam coming back and several bullpen P’s having options they can use the RAYS as a blue print to manage the starters IP’s.
With Casas coming back and maybe Story in Sept. anything can happen if the starters regain form.
TF – NOTHING I wrote was intended to be funny or antagonize, and EVERYTHING I wrote is 100% true and easily verifiable.
I responded about Devers only because it’s highly relevant to what you frequently write about, and I know you wouldn’t have seen it yesterday because you don’t watch NESN.
I responded about Abreu because I was very happy about yesterday’s win and he was a huge part of it with 2 homeruns and 4 RBI, and the guy was literally in tears during the game because he just learned his grandmother had passed away. The fact he not only played but also dedicated the game to her and had such a huge performance made him the biggest topic of the day.
Now to prove I have ZERO intention of “antagonizing” you, I will no longer respond to your posts. It’s for the best, as I cannot keep up with which Red Sox players you hate as there appears to be many, and you change your stance on them as well (such as Story, who you originally loved), therefore I don’t want to take the chance that any of my responses set you off again.
As always I will continue to enjoy reading your posts, and thank you for your support!
FPG Smackdown!
I agree with a 6-man rotation, or just figure out how to skip one start for each pitcher over the next month.
Ha! it was only a matter of time before those two jabronis turned on each other.
Fever it’s just time to enjoy the team. They are playing pretty good ball, the offense is good, the bullpen should be good and I think the starters will get better might be going through a bit of a dead arm period. Will they make the post who knows a lot of good teams. They have two rookie of the year candidates which is great probably not the favorites either one but certainly either could win it.
There’s also the farm the farm is really good and impressing more and more it’s a Slam dunk they have 5 guys in the top 100 maybe as many as 7. This is also probably the deepest farm in the game now. The experts will catch onto that soon.
The future is pretty bright for us Red Sox fans.
both KD17/TF and Fever pitch are trolls
Bruin – Exactly, and I have been enjoying the team! So many guys I’ve supported since Day One, it’s a great feeling to watch their baseball skills and personality grow. You must know the feeling because you’ve watched many of them going all the way back to the minors.
I wouldn’t take the time to watch nearly every game, including pregame and postgame, if I didn’t enjoy it so much. And no matter what happens, there wasn’t much expectation of a postseason run this year so it wouldn’t be a big disappointment if they fail to make the playoffs.
Gotta give FPG credit though, I’d have a lot more to say. But, maybe he knows that KD is above him in the MLBTR pecking order.
maybe but they’re both at the bottom regardless of which is close to the floor.
Fever it’s just time to enjoy the team. …..The future is pretty bright for us Red Sox fans.
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That ain’t happening. Some people enjoy complaining more than winning. I’ve been on various RS sites for 17 years. Maybe some of them are damaged by the unfortunate results from 1967-2003, but for some, the enjoyment of the RS centers around complaining about the RS.
I finally muted them several months back.
It’s amazing how much better these discussions are without them. You can actually read some insightful comments, agree or disagree, and have an intellectual discourse.
Going pretty well, isn’t it? Every reliever in the pen with an ERA under 4, every hitter with am OPS over .700. Sometimes they’ve been winning ugly, but their playoff odds are as high as they’ve been all season!
The guy has a 1.1 WHIP at Worcester, I think he should be worth a look but maybe Breslow wants to see the younger talent. A solo home run doesn’t kill ya, he hasn’t been giving up baserunners. Anything below 1.2 is definitely contributing to winning.
Pick him back up again Cashman.
Tff – Yes I am proud of my boys winning 3 straight series, hope they keep it up.
The difference maker is my man Yoshida, .352 BA and .976 OPS in his last 15 games!! He’s my kind of guy, quiet and humble and none of the lame showboating. He’s a true professional like Jim Rice.