{"id":502463,"date":"2026-01-08T23:50:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-08T23:50:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/502463\/"},"modified":"2026-01-08T23:50:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-08T23:50:09","slug":"phillies-avoid-arbitration-with-their-emerging-star-left-hander","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/502463\/","title":{"rendered":"Phillies Avoid Arbitration with Their Emerging Star Left-Hander"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dave Dombrowski and the Philadelphia Phillies front office checked off an important task on their offseason list of things to do on Thursday afternoon when they agreed to a one-year, $11 million deal with left-handed starter Jesus Luzardo, according to Ari Alexander of 7News.<\/a><\/p>\n

This new deal secured the obvious inevitability that Luzardo would be a key rotation piece for the 2026 Phillies, although this was never in doubt. However, it also creates a path towards an extension to keep the budding star in South Philly for the long haul.<\/p>\n

Avoiding arbitration creates goodwill between the organization and the player while also showing a clear commitment from the front office that they view Luzardo as an integral part of their future.<\/p>\n

Jesus Luzardo seems poised to build off debut season in Philadelphia<\/p>\n

The 28-year-old left-hander is coming off a solid first season for the Phillies, where he posted a record of 15-7 with a 3.92 ERA in 32 starts. He was rather durable throughout the season, which was maybe the biggest development, as he has dealt with injuries in his career. He pitched a career high 183.2 innings in 2025 and also chipped in another 7.2 innings in the postseason.<\/p>\n

Luzardo really blossomed down the stretch in 2025 and in the postseason. Over his final 11 starts, the lefty went 7-2 and posted an ERA of 2.84. In the playoffs, he had an ERA of 2.35, although he was the pitcher of record in two defeats during the Dodgers series. I think we can all agree this was no fault of his own, though.<\/p>\n

You would have to imagine that an extension is not far off between the two sides, as Luzardo really fits inside that window of being a part of this current core while also being young enough to be a part of the next great Phillies core as well. <\/p>\n

You can also factor in the Zack Wheeler situation, along with the potential of losing Ranger Suarez in free agency, and quickly, you see that the expectations\/reliance on Jesus Luzardo will only increase heading into 2026 and beyond. <\/p>\n

Regardless, should an extension be agreed upon before the season or not, you can lock in Jesus Luzardo as the number two starter for the Philadelphia Phillies with a real chance to take that next step to ace status. It should be fun to see what sort of leap he can make this season, and I think we can all agree it is comforting to know he will be in South Philly.<\/p>\n

More Philadelphia Phillies News and Rumors:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dave Dombrowski and the Philadelphia Phillies front office checked off an important task on their offseason list of…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":502464,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[1266,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-502463","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-mlb","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-unitedstates","12":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115862164380000903","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/502463","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=502463"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/502463\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/502464"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=502463"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=502463"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=502463"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}