Phillies add new starters Jesus Luzardo Chatted with Philadelphia Beats on Zoom on Monday. The left-hander remains on the injured list through the end of the 2024 season but said he will be at full strength heading into next season.
“I feel 100%. I felt 100 percent all off season.,” said Luzardo. “Last year, my back was really an issue. Now that we have fixed all the issues, thankfully everything is back to normal.He added that he’s had a typical offseason, so it’s reasonable to assume he’ll be at full strength in spring training. In the second half of June, Luzardo underwent 15 days of IL treatment for a stress reaction in his lower back. Not long after, Miami moved him to the 60-day disabled list. The Marlins permanently shut him down in early August.
Luzardo’s final season with the Marlins was disappointing. The 27-year-old lefty struggled to maintain a 5.00 ERA in 12 starts. His strikeout rate against batters was 21.2%, which was slightly below average. Luzardo missed a few weeks earlier in the year with elbow tightness, but his back issues proved to be bigger.
A fully healthy version of Luzardo would be a #2 or #3 level starter. He showed that upside in 2023. Luzardo averaged nearly 97 mph on his heater and missed a lot of hits on his slider and changeup. An overall swing-batting percentage of 14.1% ranked sixth among qualified starting pitchers.
Philadelphia sends highly regarded shortstop prospect Starlink Kabah Heading to Miami headlined the Luzardo trade. A return to his 23-year-old form would arguably give Philly one of the best top-five prospects in MLB. He will be at the back Zack Wheeler and Aaron Nora and next to rangers suarez and Christopher Sanchez On Rob Thomson’s staff. Depth not great, although Phils has added Joe Ross Received $4MM free agent franchise deal Tyjuan Walker As a candidate for a swing role.
pitching prospects Andrew Painter It could eventually become a factor, but it won’t happen within the first month or two of the season. Philadelphia is so wary of the highly regarded 21-year-old right-hander that they appear to be keeping him out of reach during trade talks. Painter is recovering from Tommy John surgery in July 2023. President of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski told reporters last week (including The Athletic’s Matt Gelb ) that the Phillies wouldn’t have Painter playing during spring training. He will continue to pitch on the sidelines in the spring and then need to establish game status in the minors.
Painter made six appearances and 15 2/3 innings in last year’s Arizona Fall League. It was his only game since the end of the 2022 season. The Phillies will need to keep an eye on his workload and definitely consider Painter a factor in a potential pennant run. Understandably, they would prefer to have him start slowly and focus on saving his bullets for when they hope to make the playoffs again. Especially now that Luzardo has joined the team, they can start the season with both Rose and Walker on the floor if their front five players are healthy.
