Bellville Brahmas baseball graduate and current Major League Baseball pitcher Lucas Luetge was recently traded from the New York Yankees to the Atlanta Braves about a month ago. Luetge has had quite the career with a lot of ups and downs, which is normal for a player at the MLB level, but really progressed during his time with the Yankees and is on track to have a stellar career with the Braves. It seems like whenever he’s on the mound, he has a productive outing, which is why the Yankees utilized him as one of their key relievers throughout the 2022 season and also why the Braves wanted to go through with the trade.
“Transition has just been more of the logistics more than anything,” said Luetge on being traded. “Baseball wise, it’d be the same thing no matter what team it is. I prepare the same way for the season, so spring training is the exact same, whether it’s with the Yankees or the Braves. The logistics is finding a place to live in a new city. That’s more the issue than anything.”
Luetge posted a win-loss record of 4-4 and a 2.67 earned run average last year with the Yankees and is 11-11 for his career with a 3.38 ERA. He was part of a combined no-hitter with the Seattle Mariners in 2012 and witnessed one of the best seasons in MLB history in New York last year with Yankees right-fielder Aaron Judge’s 62 regular-season home runs. This broke the American League record for home runs in a season, previously set by former Yankee Roger Maris in 1961.
“It was a lot of fun,” Luetge said on witnessing the historic performance. “Teams like that is the reason why you play sports. Everybody dreams of being on a team like that, especially to watch Judge do what he did this year, was pretty special to see it first hand and kind of be able to talk to him about it and get to hear what he’[s going through as well from him. It was kind of everything I dreamed of. I had a great time in New York. I got to experience playoffs both years. It was cool being there, being in the game atmosphere, and fun being on a winning team in the big leagues. It was my first time ever being on a winning team in the major leagues, so it made the season fun. As fun a big league season is, winning is a lot more fun, so it was great to experience, especially in New York. All eyes are on you at all times and every where we went, we kind of felt like celebrities because we’d sell out stadiums just because we were there, so it was kind of a cool feeling that people were showing up to see us.”
Luetge will now take the mound in Atlanta after some Braves pitching greats such as Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine, and John Smoltz with a lot of great history involved in another prestigious organization.
“I’m kind of fortunate transitioning from one historical winning franchise to another,” Luetge said. “I’m expecting the same thing. A team that is expected to win. If we lose, it’s a failure. That’s what you want. It’s cool always having those big names from the past because sometimes they’re in our locker room, so I’m hoping to kind of meet a guy like Tom Glavine one day and get to talk to him. Pick his brain a little bit because even though we’re different, we throw similar with us tossing lefty. He’s done it at an extremely high level, so being able to pick his brain and figure out what he did and didn’t do. Any time you go to an organization where you have that ability to talk to some of the older players, it can do nothing but help you.”
Luetge sets his sights on continued success in at Atlanta after a more than solid stint with the Yankees, all while still heavily supporting his Bellville Brahmas.
