So far this season, Seth Lugo has been arguably the team’s most impressive pitcher.  Yesterday, he made his season debut, and he completely dominated what may prove to be a decent Philadelphia Phillies lineup.

Lugo would need just 22 pitches to dispatch the Phillies.  Of those 22 pitches, 19 were for strikes.  Mind you, not all of those pitches were in the strike zone.  It wouldn’t matter much as all of his pitches were moving and fooling Phillies batters who actually swung at six pitches outside of the strike zone.  Ultimately, Lugo would strike out four of the six batters he faced, and the two who put the ball in play made weak contact.

The dominating performance has rekindled a debate over what exactly Lugo is.

On the one hand, Lugo has earned the right to be a part of this rotation, at least until Jason Vargas comes off the disabled list.  We have also seen Lugo have success in the rotation.  Remember, he and Robert Gsellman were key parts of the late season 2016 rotation which helped pitch the Mets to the first Wild Card.  For his part, Lugo was 5-1 with a 2.68 ERA and a 1.149 WHIP as a starter that year.

With numbers like that, Lugo should be in the rotation.  However, that success did not carry forward into last year with Lugo having an injury and his posting a 4.76 ERA in his 18 starts.  The biggest culprit for that is Lugo has allowed opposing batters to hit .297/.350/.422 off of him the third time through the order.

Those inconsistency as a starter and the struggles the third time through the lineup are reminiscent of Andrew Miller.

For years, Miller wasn’t the relief ace he is now.  Instead, he was a top pitching prospect who was one of the key pieces the Marlins obtained when they traded Miguel Cabrera to the Tigers.  Only problem is Miller never pitched like the top pitching prospect he was.  Instead, he struggled as a starter going 20-27 with a 5.70 ERA and a 1.732 WHIP.

Many of us don’t remember that because that was seven years ago.  Since that time, he has moved to the bullpen full time where he has gone from intriguing arm to Yankees closer to ALCS MVP.  Instead of the “bust” he was once known as, he is now known as perhaps the most feared reliever in all of baseball.

He doesn’t need that third or even fourth pitch to help him get through the lineup a third time.  No, he just needs a devastating fastball/slider combination to mow through opposing lineups for one, two, or maybe even three innings.

Looking at Lugo’s career to this point and his performance last night, that’s who he is. He’s the National League, the right-handed, and the Mets version of Andrew Miller.  And who better to unleash Lugo in the bullpen but Miller’s former pitching coach and current Mets manager Mickey Callaway

In the bullpen, we have seen Lugo be able to ramp up his fastball to the mid 90s.  In a shorter relief appearance, he can unleash curveball after curveball after curveball.  With each curveball he throws, he can make the opposing batters look quite foolish much like his first signature moment when he struck out Anthony Rizzo swinging on a curveball with so much movement it hit Rizzo’s foot.

Really, every time the Mets have looked for Lugo out of the bullpen he has just impressed.  Even with Lugo doing everything he could do to prove he should be in the rotation, the Mets need him in the bullpen.  After all, when you have a weapon as good as Miller in your bullpen, you make sure you use him in your bullpen.