OAKLAND, CA – Although the 2024 Menlo Baseball season has completed, Oaks fans can still enjoy some summer baseball with the MLB while keeping their eyes out for Menlo Alum Lucas Erceg at the Oakland Athletics!
Settling into Relief Pitching Role at A's
Lucas has appeared in 4 games for the A's in the 2024 season and has notched 2 wins, 2 losses and 2 saves. After 28.1 innings and 119 batters faced, Erceg has struck out 34 of them and has accumulated a 3.49 ERA, which is a great improvement from the 2023 season at 4.75 ERA. Lucas is in the 99th percentile of MLB pitchers with a 98.6 MPH fastball velocity average. His slider has a 68.8% strikeout rate which is the fourth-best on any pitch type in the MLB. The A's Manager, Mark Kotsay, said to journalist Theo DeRosa, "To have Mason Miller, to have Lucas Erceg settle in their roles and have success, all of that carries momentum, which I think we've seen".
Erceg as an Oak
Erceg owned the mound for Menlo back in the 2016 season and started 1 of his 11 appearances. After pitching 23 innings and 85 batters faced, the Bay Area native struck out 32 of them and posted an impressive 0.78 ERA. Lucas was a key player during the 2016 season which ended in an overall record of 35-22, including a 10 game winning-streak. Before arriving at Atherton, Erceg attended the University of California, Berkeley for two years as a two-way player at third base, rightfield, and on the mound. His high school years were spent in Campbell, CA as a Warrior at Westmont High School.
Shortly after his time as an Oak, Lucas would go on to be selected in the second round of the 2016 MLB Draft to the Milwaukee Brewers where he would spend his first professional season split between the Helena Brewers and the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers. He made 68 appearances in his first professional season which included a .327 batting average with 51 RBI. Before 2022, Lucas would see action both as a field player and a pitcher, but had begun focusing on pitching once he was with the Triple-A Nashville Sounds. On May 1st, Erceg would make his return to the Bay Area with a trade to the Oakland Athletics in 2023.
Work Cited:
The most extreme bullpen rebound of 2024
Lucas Erceg ESPN profile
