2023 Padres Season Review: Seth Lugo

2023 Regular Season Statistics

2.8 fWAR, 26 G, 146.1 IP, 3.57 ERA, 1.203 WHIP, 140 K, 36 BB, 19 HR, 3 HBP

Positives From This Season

I’m not going to lie. I had some question marks going into this season about Seth Lugo as a starting pitcher. He hadn’t really been a starter since 2017 so I didn’t see him being able to go the entire season as a starter. Props to him though because he did it.

Yes, there was a month stint on the IL (calf strain) but he never dealt with any arm issues and stayed in the rotation the whole time. The former New York Met reached a career-high in innings and it was the first time he reached at least 25 starts—earning himself more than $1 million in incentives.

Lugo went from the Padres only being able to guarantee him a rotation opportunity to probably being sought after by contenders to be one of their better starters in the offseason. One of the best things about his season was that he gave Bob Melvin a lot of six inning starts (17), which saved the bullpen for some other starters.

In his final start of the year he nearly pitched a complete game, which left Josh Hader to get just one out (one night after he accused the media of wanting him to do everything). What a great teammate Lugo was that night and this season.

I’m sure the Padres will want him back.

Negatives From This Season

Lugo allowed five or more earned runs four times this season and one of them was against the Kansas City Royals. Lugo suffering a calf strain isn’t something he could control but it’s still a negative on the season because guys like Ryan Weathers had to come up and make starts. Weathers would post a 9.92 ERA with the Padres while Lugo was on the IL.

Another what if this season is ‘what if Lugo didn’t miss time?’ Would’ve the Padres made the postseason because they had a better starter not missing five of his starts? We’ll never know.

Lugo is expected to decline his $7.5 million player option so the Padres will likely need to give him a multi-year deal with an AAV raise if they want him back in 2024.