What on Earth is Wrong with Jesús Luzardo?

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  • By Nathan Baker

    Last Updated on June 6, 2025 6:51 am by Anthony Kates | Published: June 6, 2025

    Through 10 starts as a Phillie, Jesús Luzardo held an ERA under two, boasting a vastly improved strike out to walk ratio behind a significant uptick in stuff. His season last year was ravaged by injury, as he limped through 12 starts to a 5.00 ERA, before finally being shut down for the year with a back injury. As Miami looked to rebuild, Luzardo hit the trade market with only two years of team control remaining, and the Phillies were one of a number of teams who believed in his ability to bounce back. At the cost of young shortstop Starlyn Caba, Philadelphia got the deal done, fortifying a rotation in desperate need of depth.

    It didn’t take much of a deep dive to figure out what went wrong with Luzardo in 2024, starting with his 1.6 mph drop in fastball velocity from his very successful 2023. ‘22 and ‘23 were both years of great success for the former Athletics farmhand (and major leaguer), finally harnessing the talent that he only flashed in his three seasons prior. The Marlins helped him do this by improving the separation between his fastball and changeup, while also sharpening the consistency on his slider. Following a year where his velocity was down, and his best slider eluded him, the task for the Phillies to return Luzardo to effectiveness seemed simple: get the velocity up, keep him healthy, and tweak the breaking ball.

    With the help of his coaches, Luzardo managed to do just that, dialing his average fastball velocity back above 96 mph, ramping up his spring training slowly to keep him on the field, and adding a sweeper to take over as his primary breaking ball. The results in spring training weren’t great, but as the season began, Luzardo ranked amongst the league leaders in ERA through the first two months of the season, pitching better than he ever had in his young career.

    On Saturday, May 31, Luzardo would face the Brewers off of a 10 strikeout performance in Sacramento, holding a 2.15 ERA. Three and one-third inning, 12 hits, three walks and 12 earned runs later, Luzardo walked off the mound to a frosty Citizens Bank Park reception, tallying one of the worst starts of the season for any pitcher. Despite the meltdown, it was just one start, and he’d look to set things right in Toronto on June 5.

    Luzardo would not only struggle again, but he’d failed to match his 3.1 inning outing five days prior, throwing 2.1 innings with two walks, two strikeouts, nine hits and eight earned runs. In the span of five days, his ERA ballooned from 2.15 to 4.46, now seriously sounding the alarm as to what could be going wrong. This two start stretch was so bad, in fact, that Luzardo became the first pitcher in modern baseball history to allow 20 earned runs in less than 6 IP over a two start span. After the game, both Luzardo and manager Rob Thomson were lost for ideas, with many speculating about injury, pitch tipping or control issues. One thing is for sure; despite his heavy over-performance over his expected statistics, this was not normal regression. So what could be the cause?

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    June 6, 2025, 6:51 am