Angels Release Joey Lucchesi

The Angels have again released left-hander Joey Lucchesi from his minor league contract, per a club announcement. That presumably came on the heels of the veteran reliever triggering an opt-out clause.

Lucchesi has spent the past month at Triple-A Salt Lake. He had an excellent June, recording 22 strikeouts while allowing only three runs across 15 1/3 innings. Lucchesi now has a 3.24 earned run average with an excellent 32% strikeout rate across 33 1/3 frames with Salt Lake overall. He struggled in a pair of very brief looks on the MLB roster, giving up six runs (five earned) on seven hits and six walks across 3 1/3 innings.

Given the Triple-A production, it comes as a moderate surprise that the Angels opted not to bring Lucchesi back up to the majors. Brent Suter, rookie Samy Natera Jr., and long reliever Mitch Farris are the left-handers in Kurt Suzuki’s bullpen. Lucchesi will be able to explore other opportunities but could return to the Angels on another minor league contract if he doesn’t find an MLB job, as he did after opting out of his previous deal a month ago.