It didn’t take long after he was traded to the Philadelphia Phillies for Jesús Luzardo to start recalling encounters with his former-rivals-turned-new-teammates.
“Those were some of the first conversations we had,” Luzardo told Yahoo Sports.
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Acquired from the Miami Marlins in December in exchange for three prospects, Luzardo was the most prominent addition for the Phillies this past offseason. Having competed in the same division the previous four seasons, his new squad was plenty familiar with the caliber of pitcher they’d added. Luzardo made six regular-season starts against the Phillies as a Marlin, plus another in Game 1 of the 2023 NL Wild-Card Series.
“We definitely had some good battles,” Luzardo said, reflecting on who in his current clubhouse gave him the most fits. “[Edmundo] Sosa was one of my toughest battles.”
Indeed, the utilityman proved to be unlikely kryptonite for the left-hander, swatting two homers and a double in just seven at-bats against Luzardo.
“We had a good time competing because everyone is so talented here … I’m glad I don’t have to face them anymore.”
Luzardo’s relief at no longer having to navigate the Phillies’ lineup is a common sentiment expressed by ballplayers when they join new teams — and it’s reciprocated by Luzardo’s new teammates. But it rings true for some more than others.
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“Thank goodness he’s on our club,” said Bryce Harper, who is 1-for-14 in his career against Luzardo, between the regular season and the postseason, with seven strikeouts and zero walks. Harper’s lone hit against Luzardo? A nifty bunt to beat the shift. Otherwise, Luzardo has carved up the two-time MVP at every turn, coaxing whiffs from Harper with his fastball, changeup and slider along the way.
“He was always a tough at-bat for me,” Harper said. “He threw that hard slider and had that sinker coming up and in. … He’s just really smart. He understands what he needs to do.”
Now, Harper is a benefactor of Luzardo’s excellence.
“What a great pickup,” he continued. “I was really excited when we got him, just knowing how he was in Miami. He’s fit in really well with us, and it’s been a lot of fun.”
‘Maybe I can try to throw one’
Luzardo was not coming off an especially inspiring campaign at the time of the trade; elbow and back injuries limited the lefty to a dozen subpar starts in 2024. The Cubs reportedly backed out of a potential trade for Luzardo due to concerns regarding his injury history. But evidently, the Phillies viewed Luzardo — who was one of the best pitchers in the NL in 2023 — as well worth the potential risk, and thus far, they’ve benefitted greatly from the pickup. The 27-year-old has been brilliant to begin his Phillies tenure, further strengthening a rotation that already looked like one of the National League’s best.
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Through nine starts, Luzardo hasn’t just lived up to his previously lofty standards; he has exceeded them. Another sterling outing Wednesday against St. Louis, in which he allowed one run over seven innings, lowered his ERA to a squeaky-clean 2.00. His 1.9 fWAR is fifth among MLB starting pitchers. The Phillies have won seven of Luzardo’s nine outings, and Luzardo has yet to be saddled with a loss on his ledger.
The results speak for themselves, but the process behind Luzardo’s success has evolved. New to his arsenal in 2025 is a sweeper, an intriguing development considering he wasn’t exactly in need of an additional offering. Firmly intact are his Luzardo’s fastballs — a four-seamer and a sinker — that average 96 mph, well above average for a lefty. His excellent changeup — the pitch that stood out as his best secondary weapon dating to his days as a prospect — still accounts for nearly 20% of his pitches. And the slider that has served as Luzardo’s go-to breaking ball since he broke into the big leagues remains a useful pitch as well.
So with four good-to-great pitches, why bother with a fifth? Well, there’s simply no such thing as having too many pitching weapons nowadays. That and the sweeper was the product of a humble suggestion from Phillies pitching coach Caleb Cotham and Luzardo’s determination to keep improving.
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“Right when I got traded, he asked me if I had ever tried [throwing a sweeper], and I told him no, and he just left it at that. But then that sparked the thought in my mind: ‘Maybe I can try to throw one,’” Luzardo recalled. “If he asked me that, then there’s a reason. So I looked into it, started messing around with it, then I brought it to them, and they were like, ‘Yeah, we’re all for it.’”
While it is thrown with similar velocity (about 86 mph), Luzardo’s sweeper features significantly more horizontal movement than his slider. That makes it an especially difficult pitch for left-handed hitters to deal with, as the ball darts much more dramatically away from the batter relative to the slider, which features more vertical, downward tilt. In turn, the sweeper has become Luzardo’s primary weapon against lefty bats; he’s deploying it 52% of the time so far this season, a notable uptick from the roughly 40% slider usage he previously maintained against lefties. And regardless of the handedness of the opponent, the sweeper has proven incredibly effective: Its 49% whiff rate ranks eighth among all pitches thrown at least 200 times in 2025.
That’s not to say Luzardo’s slider has fallen by the wayside. It might be his least used offering now, at roughly 9%, but it still serves a purpose. And Luzardo recognizes that he’s still in the process of figuring out the right balance of breaking balls and how to ensure the two pitches remain distinct.
“It’s start-to-start,” he said. “At times, you’re going through a good patch where you’re feeling both, and you can kind of separate them … and then certain starts, they maybe blend a little bit. So it’s finding that right mix. You don’t want them to blend — you want them to stay two different pitches.”
‘The more he throws, the better he’ll get’
The addition of the sweeper is the latest plot point in a career that has been defined by change. The trade to Philadelphia was the third time Luzardo had been dealt. He was traded to the Athletics just a year after being drafted out of a Florida high school by the Nationals in 2017. Two years after making his MLB debut with Oakland, Luzardo was on the move again, this time to Miami at the 2021 trade deadline. By the time he arrived in Philly, he was no stranger to new ideas and new coaching upon joining a different organization.
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It was with the Marlins that the talented southpaw began to translate his raw physical gifts into consistent run prevention, and Luzardo hasn’t lost sight of that. He credits former Marlins pitching coach Mel Stottlemyre Jr. with helping him make massive strides with his fastball command at the top and inside parts of the strike zone, which helped his changeup play up even further. With his heaters and offspeed stuff in a good place, Luzardo’s focus with Philadelphia turned to the breaking ball, and the addition of the sweeper has only amplified his high-octane arsenal.
“It’s been a long road,” Luzardo said. “But progressively, every stop, I’m getting better and better.”
For the next step along his journey as a pitcher, Luzardo is focused on deploying his pitches in ways that enable him to go deeper into outings.
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“I think it’s just getting in the zone, getting in and out of at-bats quicker,” he said. “Finding ways to put guys away, whether it’s weak contact or swing-and-miss, but finding ways to do it more efficiently, as opposed to letting the pitch count build up. I think that next step is longevity in games, consistently going six, seven, eight innings, hopefully every time.”
As Luzardo continues to hone his craft, it doesn’t hurt to have a wealth of veteran knowledge at his disposal in the Philadelphia clubhouse.
“Everyone’s been super welcoming, and being able to work with the starting staff, I think it’s awesome. It’s a lot of guys that we can bounce ideas off of,” he said. “Obviously, I’m trying to learn as much as possible.”
“He wants to learn,” Harper agreed. “Being able to have a catcher like J.T. [Realmuto] behind the plate to kind of throw things off of is huge. But you can’t say enough about him. He’s a great clubhouse guy and incredible pitcher. Every night he goes out there, we got a chance to win.”
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And while Harper and the Phillies hitters are happy to not have to face Luzardo anymore, he has also made a strong impression on his new rotation mates.
“He’s a big, strong kid,” said staff ace Zack Wheeler, who outdueled Luzardo in that wild-card showdown a couple of years ago. “He looks like he repeats his mechanics well, he has a good mentality going out there, and his stuff plays. The more he throws, the better he’ll get.
“But he’s already pretty freaking good.”
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