The Phillies and left-hander Jesús Luzardo have agreed to an extension, reports Jeff Passan of ESPN. It’s a five-year deal beginning in 2027. He was previously slated for free agency after 2026. The Roc Nation Sports client will earn $135MM on the deal, per Jim Salisbury of NBC Sports Philadelphia. There’s also a $32.5MM club option, per Robert Murray of FanSided. Murray adds that every time Luzardo finishes in the top five in Cy Young voting will boost the value of that option by $2MM, potentially maxing out at $42.5MM. Luzardo would get a $1MM assignment bonus each time he’s traded until he reaches 1o-and-5 rights, according to Jon Heyman of The New York Post.
Luzardo, 28, was once one of the top pitching prospects in baseball and he has established himself as a legit big league arm in the past few years. With the Marlins in 2022 and 2023, he made 50 starts and logged 279 innings, allowing 3.48 earned runs per nine. His 7.9% walk rate and 40.1% ground ball rate were close to league average as he struck out a strong 28.7% of batters faced. His four-seamer and sinker both averaged in the upper 90s while he also made good use of a mid-80s changeup and slider.
He had a bit of a dip in 2024. He missed time due to some elbow tightness and also due to a lumbar stress reaction. He only made 12 starts on the year and had a flat 5.00 ERA. The Phils still liked the player enough to take a chance on him going into 2025. They sent prospects Starlyn Caba and Emaarion Boyd to the Marlins in exchange for Luzardo and Paul McIntosh.
The bet paid off, as Luzardo returned to form in 2025. He made 32 starts and threw 183 2/3 innings with a 3.92 ERA, 28.5% strikeout rate, 7.5% walk rate and 42.8% ground ball rate. He also made two postseason appearances with a 2.35 ERA. He finished seventh in National League Cy Young voting.
As mentioned, 2026 was slated to be Luzardo’s final arbitration season before he would become a free agent. He and the Phils avoided arbitration by agreeing to an $11MM salary for this year. He could have played out the campaign and would have been in position for a strong contract if he had another good season. He’s currently 28 years and old, turning 29 in September.
The top free agent deals for starting pitchers have been around $200MM in recent years, with Max Fried, Corbin Burnes and Dylan Cease all getting to that range. Fried got $218MM. The latter two got $210MM, both with notable deferrals.
Luzardo hasn’t quite put up the same kind of results as those guys. Burnes and Fried have posted ERAs under 3.00 pretty regularly. Cease has had a more wobbly ERA but with comparable strikeout and walk rates to Luzardo with greater availability. Luzardo would have been younger than everyone in that group, however. Cease and Burnes signed their deals going into their age-30 seasons, while Fried was going into his age-31 campaign.
Players who sign extensions a year from the open market generally sacrifice a bit of upside in exchange for the security of locking in a deal that is still quite large. Dating back to 2017, the top extension for a pitcher with service time between five and six years was $131MM over seven years for José Berríos.
Like Luzardo, Berríos was going into his age-28 season and would have been a free agent ahead of his age-29 campaign. Berríos was also generally a guy with an ERA in the 3.50 range, though with greater durability. Berríos agreed to his deal before working out a salary for his final arbitration season. When considering the $11MM Luzardo is getting in 2026, he will make $146MM over the next six years.
More to come.
