The left-hander's road out of affiliated ball in the States has been bumpy for a while now. Non-tendered by the Giants in November, Lucchesi caught on with the Angels in March on a one-year big league deal, only to get rocked for a 7.71 ERA in three appearances before getting designated for assignment in early April. He cleared waivers and elected free agency, which is usually where a 33-year-old journeyman starter's story quietly ends.
Joey Lucchesi Signs With NPB's Chiba Lotte Marines t.co/ZQYI9rO4DJ
Instead, Lucchesi is headed to Japan. The Chiba Lotte Marines announced the signing to finish out the 2026 NPB season, giving the sinker-curveball-changeup specialist a fresh rotation spot halfway around the world. It's a landing spot that makes sense on the numbers: Lucchesi posted a 3.24 ERA with a 31.9% strikeout rate over 33 1/3 innings at Triple-A Salt Lake before the Angels cut ties, so the stuff clearly still played somewhere -- just not in the majors this year.
This isn't some no-name journeyman making the jump, either. Lucchesi broke in with the Padres back in 2018 and was a legit rotation piece for two seasons before getting swept up in the three-team Joe Musgrove deal that sent him to the Mets ahead of 2021. Since then it's been a steady slide -- optionable depth in Queens, a stop with the Giants, and now a DFA from the Angels -- the kind of arc that ends with a lot of pitchers just fading out of the sport entirely.
That's what makes the NPB move notable. Chiba Lotte isn't a retirement tour destination -- it's a real rotation opportunity, and for a soft-tosser who leans on deception over velocity, Japanese hitters and a different strike zone can be a legitimate reset button. Plenty of MLB castoffs have gone to NPB and rebuilt their value or just found a second baseball life entirely; whether Lucchesi turns this into a springboard back stateside or a long-term home is the actual story to watch now.
For MLB teams still scrambling to patch rotation and bullpen depth before deadline moves lock in, it's one fewer available left-handed arm to kick tires on. Lucchesi wasn't going to be anybody's difference-maker, but he was exactly the kind of cheap, experienced depth that gets a phone call in late July. Now that call goes to voicemail -- he's pitching in Chiba.