The Phillies made a bit of a surprise trade last offseason when they acquired Jesús Luzardo from the Miami Marlins in exchange for one of their top prospects in Starlyn Caba. The price for Luzardo wasn’t necessarily the surprise, but rather that the Phillies were acquiring another starting pitcher despite already boasting one of the league’s best rotations.
A year later, and that trade looks to have been a coup pulled off by Dave Dombrowski. Luzardo finished the second full healthy season of his career
in 2025 and went 15-7 with a 3.92 ERA. He logged a career best 183.2 IP and set a new career high with 216 strikeouts while tying his high mark of 32 starts. Luzardo started the season strong with a 5-0 record and a 2.15 ERA through his first 11 starts before having a nightmarish two start span on May 31st and June 5th when he allowed a combined 20 runs in just 5.2 IP. After some paranoia about pitch tipping and other adjustments, Luzardo recovered from that hiccup to post a 10-5 record and a 3.57 ERA across his final 19 starts.
The fiery left-hander also made two appearances in the postseason, getting through six dominant shutout innings in Game 2 before being lifted and charged with two runs in his first appearance and then going 1.2 scoreless innings in relief in Game 4 before being ultimately charged with the unearned winning run. Luzardo had only one walk across his two October appearances while racking up 8 strikeouts and allowing only five hits.
Luzardo and the Phillies pitching program developed a new pitch in a sweeper that the lefty used to devastating effect. The pitch replaced Luzardo’s slider as his second most used offering and graded out in a tie with that thrown by Garrett Crochet as the best sweeper in the Majors. Opponents hit a miniscule .178 against Luzardo’s sweeper and whiffed at a rate of 43.7%.
The first of Luzardo’s two seasons of team control in Philadelphia could not have gone much better. With Ranger Suárez’ expected departure in free agency, the injury to Zack Wheeler, and the uncertainty surrounding Aaron Nola, Luzardo is likely to enter 2026 as the Phillies number two starter behind Cristopher Sánchez. He will also be entering his final year of arbitration and won’t turn 29 until next September.
Because of his performance and the question marks in the rotation, the Phillies could look to add more certainty and lock up Luzardo long term, much like they did with Sánchez. The two situations are different though, as Sánchez approached the Phillies about an extension and he ultimately agreed to an extremely team friendly deal. It is not known if Luzardo is seeking an extension, but one could assume he would at least be open to returning to the team that helped him have the best all-around season of his career. Dave Dombrowski meanwhile expressed in his season ending press conference that he and the Phillies would “love to have Jesús Luzardo be part of our organization for years to come” but that the team has not begun that dialogue yet.
Extending Luzardo would likely require much more than the 4 year, $22.5M deal that Sánchez agreed to. But there’s also a good chance that Luzardo would be cheaper than what Suárez will receive in free agency, as the latter’s market value is around $27M per year as estimated by Spotrac.
So, should the Phillies explore a contract extension with Jesús Luzardo? Has he done enough in his first year in Philadelphia to warrant a long-term deal? If so, what do you think it would take to reach an agreement?
