Luzardo discusses trade with Phillies, believes he injured his back originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia
Eight days ago, Jesus Luzardo was getting ready for a relaxing Sunday morning on the lake when he received a call from the Marlins telling him he had been traded to the Phillies.
He wasn’t expecting the news that morning but was aware he might be on the move this offseason due to a pay raise and the Marlins’ perpetual rebuild.
“I was getting ready to go fishing, I got the call right before I got on the boat,” Luzardo said Monday afternoon via Zoom.
“I could kind of see the writing on the wall but it’s still a big change, your life is turned upside down. But definitely for a positive impact I would say. I’m looking forward to it.”
Luzardo rounds out the Phillies’ rotation and if he’s anywhere near the pitcher he was in 2022 and 2023, they should be able to boast the best and most complete starting lineup in baseball with himself, Zack Wheeler, Aaron Nola, Cristopher Sanchez and Ranger Suarez. In 50 starts over those two seasons, Luzardo had a 3.48 ERA with 328 strikeouts in 279 innings. His opponents hit .223.
A lefty with his velocity, secondary pitches and results could rank number 2 in most rotations. If he can stay healthy…
That’s the big if, and the reason the Luzardo trade cost the Phillies talented 19-year-old infielder Starlyn Caba, but not one of their top three prospects (Andrew Painter, Aidan Miller, Justin Crawford). Luzardo missed two weeks last season with an elbow strain and did not pitch after June 16 because of a stress reaction in his lower back.
He’s optimistic that his back injury will heal, though, given how he felt during the offseason and what he’s heard from doctors.
“I feel 100 percent, I felt 100 percent all offseason,” he said. “Last year the back was really the problem. Now that we’ve figured that out, thankfully everything is back to normal.
“The stress response was simply a vertebra in the spine being hampered by constant stress, constant rotation or lack of rotation. At some point it would get really irritated. It bothered me to do a lot of things – tie my shoes , bending over, brushing my teeth, spinning on the mound, it definitely affected me in different ways and it was frustrating trying to maneuver while still going out and throwing every five days. couldn’t anymore.
“I took some time off and the doctors all said the same thing: These things heal really well, and once it happens once, it usually doesn’t happen again. It’s more about just letting things calm down, let them heal themselves.”
Luzardo is 27 years old and is not set to hit free agency until after the 2026 season. He projects to make $6 million through arbitration this offseason and could cost a total of $17-18 million over the next two. Beyond the rotation boost he should provide to the Phillies, this is significant and necessary financial value compared to what starting pitchers receive in free agency.
The Red Sox signed Patrick Sandoval to a two-year, $18.25 million contract last week and he won’t even pitch in the first half this season after undergoing Tommy John surgery in June. Frankie Montas, the No. 4/5 starter, signed for $34 million over two years with the Mets. Matthew Boyd, another starting fullback who hasn’t pitched a full season in five years, signed for $29 million over two years with the Cubs.
Luzardo is younger than all of them with a significantly higher cap hit and will likely make less than all of them in 2025 and 2026, which is important for a Phillies team that has already passed the fourth and final luxury tax threshold of 301 million dollars. Every dollar counts this offseason, as shown here. The penalties are severe. The Phillies are essentially paying double for every player they add.
“We asked about Luzardo a few times over the winter just to check, and then this happened really quickly last week,” president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski said just before Christmas.
“We’ve loved him for a few years. He was down for a while last year, we did some very thorough medicals and we felt comfortable with where he is.”
So did Luzardo, who started a little earlier than usual this offseason to ease his transition to 2025. While he can’t guarantee the back injury won’t return, he put it out of his mind and has been running freely since the end of the season.
“I don’t have the exact answer because I don’t know how I’ll feel in two, three, four, five years, but from what I understand, once it heals, it calcifies or hardens and you don’t do it.” I won’t have any more problems,” he said. “I was able to get on the mound, do what I needed to do without any pain, without any symptoms. I haven’t really thought about it or felt it, so I hope it’s something that’s just behind me and I never have to think about it. That’s what these doctors told me, so I’m not really worried about it at the moment.”
