Will the dream of a former NC foreigner break? Demoted from Opening Day starter to bullpen?
Drew Luchinski (35‧ Oakland), familiar to KBO League fans by playing for the NC Dinos for four years from 2019 to last year, signed a 1+1 year contract with Oakland ahead of this season. He successfully returned to the major leagues. 메이저사이트
Luchinski signed a 1+1 year total of $8 million. He gets $3 million in 2023, plus an additional $5 million if Oakland exercises the option in 2024. He was a forgotten player in the major leagues for a while, and considering his age, which is not small in his mid-30s, he made a comeback with not bad treatment.
Since Oakland is rated as the lowest among the 30 major league clubs, it seemed relatively easy to win a spot. In fact, Auckland has a weak starting lineup, and Luchinski was selected as a player who is sure to enter the rotation along with ace Paul Blackburn and his motivation for joining Shintaro Fujinami. However, it was unclear whether he would be able to achieve that goal due to poor performance in exhibition games and injuries.
Basically, my grades weren’t that good. He pitched in three games, but none of them were scoreless, getting a whopping 14 hits in 10⅓ innings pitched. His number of home runs is 3, which is a lot. His earned run average jumped to 6.97. His on-base per innings allowed (WHIP) reached 1.65 and his batting average reached 0.326. Overall, he was not good enough to be guaranteed a spot in the starting lineup.
Here, he takes a break from starting pitching due to hamstring pain. He is not a major injury, but the possibility of starting the season on the injured list cannot be ruled out.
In the meantime, the prospect that Luchinski will be pushed out of the starting lineup and go to the bullpen is also raising its head little by little. US CBS Sports mentioned Luchinski’s sluggish performance and said, “Luczynski is competing with Kyle Mueller and JP Sears for the fifth starting spot in Oakland.” went out Considering this, it could be an intermediate relief option,’ he predicted.
Subtle changes have also been made to the Oakland Depth Chart on the official website of Major League Baseball. Luchinski, who was initially classified as a starting pitcher, is now missing from the starting depth chart. Oakland is expected to have Paul Blackburn, James Caprielian, JP Sears, Adam Ohler, and Kyle Mueller in order, and Mueller has been confirmed as the starter for the opening game. Conversely, Luchinski moved to the bullpen on the depth chart before he knew it.
As Oakland’s starting lineup itself is so weak, there is little chance that the opening five members of the opening rotation will go through to the end of the season. In the case of Fujinami, as he used to play in Japan, it is confirmed that he will start once a week or after a 5-day break. However, Luchinski also needed to run from the start considering the 2024 option. Attention is focusing on whether Luchinski will be able to step on the mound in the major leagues again as a starter.