The Mets acquired former Padres starting pitcher Joey Lucchesi in a three-team deal with the Pirates on Monday. The 27-year-old lefty not only strengthens an already-improved starting rotation following the acquisition of Carlos Carrasco, but also ensures veteran depth the team was missing in 2020.
Lucchesi pitched nearly 300 combined innings in 2018 and 2019 for San Diego, recording 1.0 fWAR in his rookie season and 2.1 fWAR in his second. He features a sinker and a changeup for the vast majority of his pitches, showing excellent ground ball potential for a recently improved infield defense, though he only induced ground balls at a slightly higher rate (48.