The Philadelphia Phillies have had a solid offseason so far, bringing in players like Max Kepler, Jordan Romano, Joe Ross, and potentially most notably, Jesús Luzardo. Luzardo was one of the higher-end pitchers on the market this offseason, and a trade finally got done as the Phillies made a strong final push to get him.
Giving up top prospects in a trade is a difficult decision, and a decision Philadelphia had to make as they were willing to send out No. 4 and No. 23 prospects Starlyn Caba and Emaarion Boyd as the return pieces to acquire Luzardo from the Miami Marlins.
This is a risky deal too, as he is coming off a relatively difficult season starting only 12 games due to left elbow tightness and then a lumbar stress reaction that ended his season beyond June 22nd.
Regardless of all of that, things look to be on the up-and-up already for the pitcher entering his seventh season, as he had a strong first appearance during 2025 spring training.
Against the Boston Red Sox, Luzardo pitched two innings, and in that span he retired all six batters, striking out two and now allowing a walk.
This is a strong sign for the recent Phillies addition, as it shows his elbow is reacting well to the ramp-up in pitching again, but also that hopefully his lumbar spine issue is all cleared up as well. Back in mid-December, Luzardo made it clear that he was recovering well and starting to feel normal, stating he was, “Feeling really good [with my] elbow, back, whole body, and just really gearing up for Spring Training and eyeing down that Opening Day to be 100% full-go, which for now, everything feels really good, and we are full-go.”
Luzardo is likely to be fifth in a strong Philadelphia starting pitcher rotation, behind Zach Wheeler, Cristopher Sánchez, Aaron Nola, and Ranger Suárez. These are all quality pitchers, who Luzardo could no doubt learn a bit from regarding the team, as all four were acquired by the Phillies organization in 2019 or earlier.
Philadelphia will no doubt be hoping to get Luzardo back to his 2023 form, where he started 32 games, and in 178.2 innings of work had a 3.58 ERA, 1.215 WHIP, 208 strikeouts to 55 walks (3.78 SO/BB), and a 131 ERA+.
A strikeout percentage of 28.1% and a whiff percentage of 31.4% in 2023 are no doubt extremely strong metrics and something to build off of for the Phillies as they look to contend once again in a strong NL East.
