An injured Marlins pitcher may be done for the season

The Miami Marlins have been waves with quite a few moves over the last few weeks. Some of those moves in particular have been taking flyers on potential reclamation projects with upside. One largely forgotten issue has been the return of starting pitcher Jesus Luzardo. We now have very disappointing news to report on the pitcher.

Miami Marlins Starting Pitcher Jesus Luzardo is likely out for the season.

It wasn't supposed to be this way. Jesus Luzardo established himself as a legitimate top of the rotation arm for The Fish. Luzardo delivered a stunning 2022 season, posting a 3.32 ERA/3.12 FIP with 10.8 K/9 and 3.1 BB/9 in 18 games and 100.1 innings pitched. This really put him on the map, but it was the follow-up 2023 season that clinched the deal so to say.

In the 2023 season, Jesus Luzardo delivered a 3.58 ERA/3.55 FIP, with 10.5 K/9 and 2.8 BB/9 in 32 games and 178.2 innings pitched. You may wonder how that's possible with both a worse ERA and a worse FIP, but that's not the key figure here. He basically pitched a full starting pitcher's workload of innings. Durability happened to be his biggest issue going into that season, due to his extensive prior injury history.

Luzardo's work in 2023 was one of the key reasons why the Miami Marlins made an improbable playoff run, and why there was hope for a repeat this season. The return trip to the playoffs already won't happen, but neither will Luzardo come close to replicating his performance.

Assuming we already saw Luzardo's final start, he'll finish the season with a disappointing 5.00 ERA/4.26 FIP, with 7.8 K/9 and 3.0 BB/9 in 12 games and 66.2 innings pitched. A clearly disastrous follow-up that will in question his short-term future with The Fish. Luzardo is under team control via arbitration through the 2026 season. At this point, he can't pitch for six weeks and since he can't immediately join the rotation at what would be mid-September, his season seems to indeed be over.

My guess is that Peter Bendix will explore the trade market for Jesus Luzardo in the off-season, however that he won't sell low. He might wait until he presumably rebuilds his value mid-season for the Miami Marlins to trade him.