Phillies trade for Marlins starting pitcher Jesus Luzardo – NBC Sports Philadelphia

The outfield, bullpen and back of the starting rotation were the three clearest areas the Phillies needed to address as the offseason began, and after signing Jordan Romano and Max Kepler to one-year contracts, they acquired the left-handed starting pitcher Jesús Luzardo Sunday morning from The Marlins.

The Phillies send the Marlins their no. 4 prospect, Dominican shortstop Starlyn Caba, and outfielder Emaarion Boyd, a former 11th-round pick who spent 2024 at High-A.

This has the potential to be the highest impact addition of the three for the Phillies. They needed a fifth starter, but Luzardo is much more than that, closer to a No. 2 when healthy, and he said last week he is after missing the last 3½ months of the season with a back injury.

Luzardo, 27, comes with two more years of club control and is eligible for free agency after the 2026 season. He immediately upgrades the Phillies’ rotation, taking it from one of the best in baseball to probably the best in baseball. He offers the Phillies protection if Ranger Suarez leaves in free agency after 2025. Suarez hired Scott Boras last week and has certainly seen the prices of pitching in free agency, so it’s a real possibility. And Luzardo also maintains a strong rotation for the Phillies, should an attractive trade offer for Suarez materialize over the next two months.

Luzardo’s best year was 2023, his only full season of health, when he went 10-10 with a 3.58 ERA, striking out 208 batters in 178⅔ innings. He had Tommy John surgery in 2016, missed a little less than half of the 2022 season with a forearm problem, two weeks in 2024 with a tight elbow and didn’t pitch after June 16 because of a lower back strain reaction.

However, Luzardo told reporters last week that he is healthy and throwing.

“Being able to go through my normal offseason progression: throwing, running, starting to get off the mound,” Luzardo shared MLB.com. “Feeling really good (with my) elbow, back, whole body, and just really ready for spring training and looking down on that opening day to be 100% full going, which for now, everything feels really good and we’re sated – go.”

Luzardo looked like he was growing into a top-of-the-rotation starter as late as 2023. In 50 starts from 2022-23, he pitched to a 3.48 ERA and 1.15 WHIP with 328 strikeouts in 279 innings.

The Phillies’ lineup knows all too well. They knocked him out after four innings in the 2023 wild-card round, but have otherwise struggled with Luzardo’s 95-97 mph fastball, plus changeup and mid-80s slider. Here’s what he’s done the last five times he’s faced them in the regular season:

• 5⅓ IP, 1 R, 11 K
• 7 IP, 2 R, 9 K
• 6 IP, 3 R, 5 K
• 6⅓ IP, 2 R, 9 K
• 5⅔ IP, 2 R, 8 K

A 2.97 ERA with 42 strikeouts in 30⅓ innings.

Excluding 2023, Luzardo has topped 100⅓ innings in the majors. He certainly doesn’t have a Zack Wheeler or Aaron Nola track record for durability, but maybe that’s the point. There isn’t much workhorse wear on Luzardo’s left arm despite his start in the majors since 2020.

Luzardo is expected to earn $6 million through arbitration this offseason, according to MLB Trade Rumors. That number is likely to increase to $11 million per year from now. Given the prices of starting pitching in free agency, if he can stay healthy, it’s tremendous value and bang for the buck for the Phillies. Two years of Luzardo could end up costing the Phillies $17 million, while two years of lesser upside pitchers like Frankie Montas and Matthew Boyd cost the Mets and Cubs $34 million and $29 million, respectively.

Every dollar counts for the Phillies this offseason, as detailed here. With their luxury tax situation, they’re essentially paying double for every player they add until more money comes off the books next winter, or unless they can clear some salary before then.

Of course, the Phillies also paid a prospect price, sending the 19-year-old Caba to Miami. He just got his first taste of Single A in 2024 and was unlikely to help the Phillies for a handful of years. They are very much a win-now team and Luzardo is a win-now player that didn’t cost them their heralded trio of Andrew Painter, Aidan Miller and Justin Crawford.

The Phils also get a minor-league catcher in the deal: 27-year-old Paul McIntosh, who took 480 plate appearances in Double A last season in the Marlins’ system.

The Luzardo addition will push the Phillies’ payroll to approximately $305 million from a luxury tax perspective. This is past the fourth and highest threshold, which carries the harshest penalties. The Phils already paid an extra 92.5 cents for every dollar spent over the third cap of $281M, which is why the one-year, $10M contract for Kepler will actually cost closer to $19.25M.

The luxury tax over the $301 million threshold is 110 cents for every dollar of surplus, so even a $5 million player right now would cost the Phillies about $10.5 million.

However, the bulk of their offseason work is done. They’ve added starting pitching upside and depth with Luzardo, replaced one of the two late relievers they lost to free agency with Romano and brought in another outfielder they hope can take an everyday job in left field in Kepler . There is a calculated risk and reward for all three. With an inflexible payroll and roster, the Phillies knew they had to get creative.