Miami Marlins starting pitcher is back on the IL

It looked like Miami Marlins CF Jazz Chisholm Jr. was injured recently, but luckily he returned to the lineup yesterday. Unfortunately, we now have news on another injured player. Starting Pitcher Jesus Luzardo is now going on the 15-day IL due to his back issues. This is a big blow to the team and plans for the upcoming Trade Deadline.

Miami Marlins starting pitcher Jesus Luzardo is going on the IL.

It turns out that Jesus Luzardo pitched through back issues in his last outing against the Washington Nationals. This of course explains his lowered fastball velocity and poor performance. This hasn't been a typical season for the pitcher. Over the last two seasons, he produced a 3.48 ERA/3.40 FIP, with 10.6 K/9 and 2.9 BB/9 in 50 games and 279.0 innings pitched. He looked like a legitimate #2 type of starting pitcher.

This season hasn't been as good for Luzardo. He's currently sitting on a 5.00 ERA/4.24 FIP, with 7.8 K/9 and 3.0 BB/9, in 12 games and 66.2 innings pitched. This is obviously not only worse, but alarmingly shaky. The strikeouts specifically, as they're down significantly. This has to be down due to his health and not a loss of ability.

Manager Skip Schumaker had this to say:

“You don’t want to overdo another side of the body or another part of the body because you’re trying not to hurt whatever is being hurt or is hurting. You definitely don’t want to push through something, especially the back, because it could lead to other things.  So we’ll see what the results say and what the doctors say, but it’s definitely not something that you push through.”

It's definitely a good thing to give him rest. That said, this certainly affects The Fish's Trade Deadline plans. The oft-mentioned trade candidate has likely lowered trade value due to the injury, and his injury history as well. I suspect that he won't be traded at this point until next off-season at least. I was never a fan of trading him, so this is good news for me. I just hope that he recovers and is able to pitch well again.