Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Jesús Luzardo could turn out to be an underrated acquisition. Luzardo was traded to the Phillies by the Miami Marlins this past offseason. Ranger Suárez being out with an injury does not have as much of a negative impact on the Phillies rotation with Luzardo being on the team. Luzardo takes an already good Phillies starting rotation to another level. It is worth noting that Luzardo missed most of the 2024 season with injuries. Luzardo made 12 appearances and pitched 66 2/3 innings. During his career, Luzardo pitched over 100 innings in two of his six previous major league seasons. Luzardo has pitched more than 150 innings in a season once in 2023.
Spring Training And First Regular Season Start
Luzardo went five innings and recorded 11 strikeouts while allowing two runs in his Phillies regular-season debut. Furthermore, those 11 strikeouts rank tied with Jim Bunning for the second most for a pitcher in their Phillies debut. Garrett Stephenson is the lone Phillies pitcher with more strikeouts in their debut for the club. Luzardo is currently second after Zack Wheeler in the Phillies starting rotation. Additionally, Luzardo increased his average fastball velocity from 95.5 mph last year to 96.9 mph so far this year. Luzardo threw his fastball on 35.8% of his pitches against the. Washington Nationals. It has not been officially announced when Luzardo will start his second regular season.
Luzardo had a 1-0 record during spring training with a 9.49 ERA in four outings. Luzardo recorded a 7.38 FIP during spring training. In addition, Luzardo had a 29.1% strikeout rate and a 5.5% walk rate this spring. Luzardo had a .275 batting average against and a 1.38 WHIP during spring training. It was not the greatest spring for Luzardo; however, in the grand scheme, spring training statistics are not good predictors of regular-season success. Luzardo showed promising signs in his first regular-season outing. Spring training was also the first time Luzardo had seen game action since the middle part of the 2024 regular season, since his injuries occurred.
Long Term Outlook
Suárez is unlikely to get a contract extension with Luzardo being on the team. Luzardo is under team control through the 2026 season. Andrew Painter is expected to reach the majors sometime this summer. Painter arriving might shuffle the rotation order. Luzardo is second in the rotation to split up the Phillies left-handed starting pitchers. If everything goes according to plan, Luzardo will probably be second or fourth in the long term rotation. Luzardo coming to the Phillies gives the team more flexibility with Suárez and Painter. Hopefully, The team will avoid the fifth starter carousel that it ran into at the end of last season. This caused a lot of problems down the stretch.
Luzardo continuing his return to 2023 form would be significant for the Phillies. That year, Luzardo had a 10-10 record, a 3.58 ERA, and 208 strikeouts in 32 games. Luzardo recorded a 3.55 FIP and a 3.8 fWAR that season. That year, Luzardo had an average 96.7 mph fastball velocity. Luzardo had a similar velocity in his first start. Maintaining this velocity level on his fastball will help Luzardo be successful. Luzardo has a similar velocity to 2023 for his sinker and changeup. Luzardo had a better average velocity on those three pitchers in his first outing than his career average in the majors. If Luzardo can maintain this, he will have a chance to be an All-Star caliber player this season.
Main Photo Credits: Reggie Hildred-Imagn Images
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