{"id":37042,"date":"2020-08-20T00:56:26","date_gmt":"2020-08-20T04:56:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonbaseball.com\/?p=37042"},"modified":"2020-08-20T00:56:26","modified_gmt":"2020-08-20T04:56:26","slug":"seth-lugo-being-moved-to-starting-rotation-for-new-york-mets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2020\/08\/20\/seth-lugo-being-moved-to-starting-rotation-for-new-york-mets\/","title":{"rendered":"Seth Lugo Being Moved to Starting Rotation for New York Mets"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Following the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/teams\/NYM\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">New York Mets<\/a> win over the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/teams\/FLA\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Miami Marlins<\/a> on Wednesday, manager <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/managers\/rojaslu99.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Luis Rojas<\/a> <\/strong>announced that <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/l\/lugose01.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Seth Lugo<\/a><\/strong> will be moving to the rotation and will make the start Thursday night. The Mets rotation has been decimated with injuries, and with <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/m\/matzst01.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Steven Matz<\/a><\/strong> struggling, New York is opting to place Lugo in the rotation.<\/p>\n<h2>Seth Lugo<\/h2>\n<p>Starting Lugo is undoubtedly a risky move for the Mets. While their rotation is in shambles, the back end of the bullpen is also very shaky. It was never more evident in <a href=\"https:\/\/sports.yahoo.com\/confortos-2-run-homer-9th-lifts-mets-over-023715486--mlb.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Wednesday night&#8217;s game<\/a> when New York led 3-1 heading into the eighth.<\/p>\n<p>On most nights when Lugo is available, the Mets go their star pitcher for a six-out save. That was a possibility, but New York opted to go with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/b\/betande01.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>Dellin Betances<\/strong><\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/d\/diazed04.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>Edwin Diaz<\/strong><\/a> to get them through the game. Fortunately, after the Mets blew the lead, <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/c\/confomi01.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Michael Conforto<\/a><\/strong> hit a game-winning two-run homer in the ninth inning.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Clutchforto! <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/LGM?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#LGM<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/KeXhRxiMy7\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/KeXhRxiMy7<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; New York Mets (@Mets) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Mets\/status\/1296270306789785602?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">August 20, 2020<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Still, the Mets are going to need to stretch out Lugo before he can get deep into games. He has yet to pitch more than two innings in any appearance. The team has insisted that Lugo would not be a starter. He has not started a game since the 2018 season, where he made five starts. However, Lugo has made it clear that he <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mlb.com\/news\/seth-lugo-still-aspires-to-starter-role\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">wants to be a starter<\/a>\u00a0and the Mets have finally given in.<\/p>\n<p>Rojas is going to need to count on Betances, Diaz, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/f\/familje01.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>Jeurys Familia<\/strong><\/a> to pitch well in the back end of the bullpen. Also, <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/h\/hugheja02.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jared Hughes,<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/w\/wilsoju10.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Justin Wilson<\/a><\/strong>, and <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/b\/brachbr01.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Brad Brach<\/a><\/strong> will be extremely important with the Mets moving their best reliever into the rotation.<\/p>\n<h2>Steven Matz<\/h2>\n<p>This move also means that Matz will not start on Thursday. There has been no question that the left-hander has struggled this season. However, Matz is going to need to be a piece for this team to compete as the number two starter.<\/p>\n<p>Other than <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/d\/degroja01.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>Jacob<\/strong>\u00a0<strong>deGrom<\/strong><\/a><strong>,<\/strong> the Mets are rolling out <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/p\/porceri01.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Rick Porcello<\/a><\/strong> along with <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/o\/oswalco01.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Corey Oswalt<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/g\/gsellro01.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>Robert Gsellman<\/strong><\/a> with both <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/w\/wachami01.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Michael Wacha<\/a><\/strong> and <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/p\/peterda01.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">David Peterson<\/a><\/strong> on the injured list. They have already had <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/s\/stromma01.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>Marcus Stroman<\/strong><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonbaseball.com\/2020\/08\/10\/marcus-stroman-opts-out-2020-season\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">opt-out<\/a> and lost\u00a0<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/s\/syndeno01.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Noah Syndergaard<\/a><\/strong> to <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonbaseball.com\/2020\/03\/24\/noah-syndegaard-tommy-john-surgery\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Tommy John surgery<\/a> prior to the start of the season.<\/p>\n<p>In all likelihood, the Mets will use Matz out of the bullpen in low leverage spots for now. Anyway, they are asking a lot from their bullpen with Lugo moving to the rotation. Matz also has struggled in his first innings throughout his career, so it will be interesting to see how he performs after the demotion.<\/p>\n<p>Lugo&#8217;s first start will be a big one as the Mets look for the four-game series sweep in Miami. It would also move the Mets to one-game under .500 with the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/teams\/NYY\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">New York Yankees<\/a> coming to town on Friday night for a three-game series.<\/p>\n<p>Main Photo: <a id=\"OEd2BSf7QWlwMGf4p7xACw\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/1146367062\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'OEd2BSf7QWlwMGf4p7xACw',sig:'QMfs8pivultn8KstVM7Y3aMY5hRURcfxMiJ4PIMDbX4=',w:'594px',h:'426px',items:'1146367062',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Following the New York Mets win over the Miami Marlins on Wednesday, manager Luis Rojas announced that Seth Lugo will be moving to the rotation and will make the start Thursday night. The Mets rotation has been decimated with injuries, and with Steven Matz struggling, New York is opting to place Lugo in the rotation. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3428,"featured_media":37056,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[3163,164,165,684],"class_list":["post-37042","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mets","tag-luis-rojas","tag-new-york-mets","tag-seth-lugo","tag-steven-matz"],"modified_by":"DJ Kleinbard","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37042","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3428"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37042"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37042\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37056"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37042"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37042"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37042"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}