New York Mets right-hander, Seth Lugo, has never shied away from making his wishes to become a major-league starter again well known.

After being shifted into the Mets’ bullpen full-time before the 2018 season, the 29-year-old Louisiana product was thrust back into the rotation out of necessity (Noah Syndergaard, strained right index finger) in early June of that year.

Once Syndergaard returned toward the end of the month, Lugo was understandably disappointed but understood the reasoning behind his relegation back into a relief role.

At the time, Lugo’s 2.04 ERA over 39.2 innings as a reliever — not necessarily compared to his 4.74 ERA over four starts in Thor’s absence — simply fit the Mets’ needs better, and it turned out to be a blessing for the right-hander.

Over 49 relief appearances in 2018 (78.1 IP), Lugo pitched to a 2.30 ERA with 76 strikeouts, 22 walks, and 1.01 WHIP. Simply dominant.

Through 2019, it’s been more of the same for Seth Lugo. Over 72 innings of work this season (55 appearances), he’s got a 2.75 ERA (seventh-best among qualified NL relievers) and 2.70 FIP (third) with 94 strikeouts (fourth), 16 walks, and 0.90 WHIP (sixth-lowest).

Lugo’s 31.4% hard-hit rate is ninth-least among the same group, his 2.00 walks per nine is seventh-best, and 2.0 wins above replacement (FanGraphs) ranks fourth in the league.

Since the beginning of July (25 games, 32 IP), he’s allowed just six earned runs and five of them came in one game (August 14 at Atlanta).

There’s no understating just how instrumental Seth Lugo’s been to the Mets’ second-half turnaround, as well as keeping the relief corps afloat amid the storm of inconsistency they’ve faced.

Despite Lugo’s phenomenal success as a reliever, his desire to return to a starting role (4.06 career ERA as a starter; 31 games, 168.1 IP) still burns as brightly as ever.

“I’m a starter who’s in the bullpen. All my personal goals are starter-based,” Lugo told Anthony Reiber of Newsday. “I’d like to win 20 games. I’ve still never had a nine-inning complete game […] All my goals are starter-based; everybody knows it.”

Ahead of Saturday night’s 3-0 win over Los Angeles (with the game still scoreless, Lugo struck out the side in a perfect eighth), Mets skipper Mickey Callaway was asked about his star reliever potentially returning to starting in the future and didn’t exactly shoot down the idea.

“I think you can definitely see him as a starter at some point. I think it depends on the makeup of the team; what does the team need? He can excel in any role out there because he’s a great pitcher.”

“He can be a multiple-inning reliever, he can be just a closer, he can be a starter. I think he could fulfill anything you want and whatever the team needs.”

Lugo understands that point-of-view, telling Reiber, “I know where I’m needed”, adding, “In my opinion, I’ve got a lot of baseball left in me. There’s plenty of time for [starting]”.

With Zack Wheeler‘s return to New York this offseason no cinch, a spot in the rotation could very well be opening up soon. Whether the Mets want to subtract from their bullpen to allow Lugo to slide into that role remains to be seen. But Lugo seems to understand how the business of baseball works.

“Realistically, I’ll have to see where the offseason acquisitions go. My hopes aren’t too high on that”.

Seth Lugo anchoring the Mets’ bullpen has been a boon for this ballclub and the process of Lugo’s transformation has been an absolute joy to watch. If-and-when the need for another starter arises, the Mets’ will act accordingly.

As for now, if it ain’t broke, it’s extremely hard to justify fixing it.