Philadelphia Phillies 'Comfortable' With Jesus Luzardo's Health Despite Concerns

Despite the health concerns that come with Jesus Luzardo, the Philadelphia Phillies were willing to trade for him.

Jun 11, 2024; New York City, New York, USA; Miami Marlins starting pitcher Jesus Luzardo (44) pitches against the New York Mets during the first inning at Citi Field / Brad Penner-Imagn Images

The Philadelphia Phillies doubled down on their elite starting rotation as the ethos of this team.

Already possessing one of the best in Major League Baseball, their headliner move to date this offseason was trading for Jesus Luzardo, a talented left-handed pitcher who has ace-level stuff and will solve the problem that the fifth spot presented the Phillies this past campaign.

It's a great move on paper.

With Philadelphia being financially tied up by being over the fourth tier of the luxury tax threshold, that largely prevented them from going after high-profile free agents like they have in the past, so they opted to land Luzardo and his remaining two years of club control.

But for this to work, he has to stay healthy.

It's a gamble for the Phillies based on his injury history, but according to Dave Dombrowski, it's one they vetted and were comfortable making.

"We did our very thorough [review of] medicals and felt very comfortable where he is at this point. He's been working out already. He's been throwing some. We think he's a quality starter in the rotation and gives you a chance to have a quality start every time out," the president of baseball operations said per Scott Lauber of The Philadelphia Inquirer.

There's a risk that comes with any acquisition, but because Luzardo has had a forearm strain, elbow tightness and a lumbar stress reaction all in the past three years, those are warning flags that likely scared off plenty of teams despite the dominant stretch he had in the 2022 and 2023 seasons.

For Philadelphia, they don't need him to be their ace, they just need him to give good starts whenever he's on the mound.

With him in the mix, it's hard not to think they have the best all-around starting rotation in the league.

"When we talked about Luzardo's scenario and he was available, it's just, we talked about trying to get our team better any way that we possibly could. We just think he was a big upgrade for us. You would never call him just a fifth starter. He's better than that," Dombrowski added.

The Phillies are hoping that's the case.

If he gives them the 3.58 ERA and131 ERA+ performance across 32 starts like he had in 2023, then Philadelphia is going to win a lot of games once again.