Joey Lucchesi seemed to finally be coming into his own during the 2021 season when he unfortunately needed to undergo Tommy John surgery, which ended his season and forced him to miss all of the following year. In 2023, he was expected to provide rotation depth, but despite Justin Verlander and José Quintana missing the beginning of the year with injuries, Lucchesi didn’t make the rotation out of spring training and didn’t make his season debut until April 21 against the Giants.
The rotation was a bit tumultuous at the time, and he arguably pitched the best game of the season at that point.