It was one year ago this week that the baseball world came to a halt as the COVID-19 pandemic bore down on America. On March 12, 2020, MLB announced that all Spring Training games were cancelled as of 4 p.m. that day, and the following morning, all camps were closed.
Lucas Luetge was in Arizona at the time, battling to make the Oakland Athletics’ roster as a non-roster invitee. He had thrown six innings over five appearances for the A’s, but when the world stopped, so, too, did his quest to return to the Majors.
“Like everyone else, we were kind of confused, because no one really knew anything about the virus or how long we were going to be out,” Luetge told the media on Tuesday. “I stayed ready even when we shut down, because everyone thought it might only be a week or two.”
Eventually, Luetge returned to the A’s and ended up spending all of the shortened 2020 season at their alternate site, but while that wasn’t a “lost year” per se, it was not as active as one might think, especially for someone who was essentially going through the motions.
“It was disappointing, because I didn’t get to show what I can do. You’re so limited with what you can do at the alternate site, and Oakland’s bullpen was so good and so healthy, there wasn’t much movement there,” he said.
Last year, Luetge chose the Athletics over the Yankees, who had contacted him on “day one” after he became a free agent following the 2019 season. The Yankees did so again this winter, and that’s when the lefty knew it was meant to be…if his connection to another legendary Yankees southpaw wasn’t already a sign.
“They backed it up this year and contacted e on the first day, and it showed they were truly interested,” Luetge said. “Plus, it’s playing for the Yankees. I grew up watching them, and I was a big Andy Pettitte fan because he went to my junior college, so it was something I wanted to do and it felt right.”
Their history as San Jacinto College hurlers aside, Luetge and Pettitte share very few other similarities beside their home state and their handedness. Pettitte was a fixture in the major leagues for 18 seasons – spending just three weeks on option in the minors after he made his MLB debut – while Luetge hasn’t pitched in the Majors since April 25, 2015, his only MLB appearance of that season for Seattle.
“It feels like about as long as it seems,” Luetge said of that gap. “I missed a year and a half or so because of Tommy John, so I don’t count those, but I’m hungry to get back for sure.”
Luetge bounced around after that last appearance, spending most of 2015 in Triple-A with the Mariners and having Triple-A stints with the Angels, Reds, Orioles, and Diamondbacks (plus that Tommy John surgery) before spending last year with Oakland at the alternate site.
All the while, the lefty who will turn 34 later this month has never stopped trying to show what he can do, especially last year when the era of the LOOGY came to an end.
“I feel like I can bring a little bit of everything. I’ve done long relief, and at the alternate site, I asked to pitch three innings every outing so that I could show I’m not just a lefty-lefty situational guy,” he said.
The Yankees did have some competition for their final bullpen spots when Luetge came to camp, but perhaps, that crack in the door got a little wider when news came down Tuesday that Zack Britton will need surgery to remove a bone chip from his left elbow.
Luetge was already in the mindset of needing to impress, and he’s done just that: through his first three outings, he has allowed just two hits, and eight of his nine outs have come via strikeout. Strong first impression for a non-roster invitee, and now, perhaps an even stronger resume with another opening in that relief corps.
It’s always worth a reminder that spring stats are usually taken with a grain of salt, but to be fair, there are some big names on that resume – in his last outing on Sunday, Luetge fanned Andrew McCutchen, Didi Gregorius, and Bryce Harper in order – and, in a position where performance matters more than ever, Luetge has done nothing but.
“I think everyone in my position as a non-roster invitee knows results do matter for us, especially early – first impressions matter,” he said. “I think everyone in my situation does what I did: come in ready in mid-season form, not in March form.”
If he can stay in that mid-season form for the next three weeks, Luetge has a real chance of actually seeing mid-season in the Majors.
Follow Lou DiPietro on Twitter: @LouDiPietroWFAN
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