The Miami Marlins need to take a page out of the Philly playbook

The Miami Marlins pitching rotation has been dismantled by injuries. This will likely affect the upcoming Trade Deadline as Jesus Luzardo seemed like an obvious trade candidate. With Luzardo's poor performance this season and questionable return based on injury, does this mean that he won't be traded? If so, could a lesson be taken from the Philadelphia Phillies?

The Miami Marlins could take a page out of Philly's playbook.

The Philadelphia Phillies are committed to extending their players. In fact they just recently did that with breakout SP Cristopher Sanchez. This was a good move for the division leading team. It's also a move that the Miami Marlins can look to emulate. Would it be better to extend Jesus Luzardo rather than trade him? Would keeping the team's core in place not be a more sensible move?

It's obviously important to point out that Philly is one of the top spending teams. The Fish sadly are certainly not known for spending on players. The extension that Philly gave Sanchez however is hardly breaking any team's bank. It's a 4-year deal worth "just" $22.5 million. That's his reward for an impressive 2.67 ERA/2.50 FIP, with 7.5 K/9 and 2.6 BB/9 in 15 games and 84.1 innings pitched.

There's no doubt that Philly made the right call to extend Sanchez. Why don't The Fish do the same with Jesus Luzardo? Wouldn't extending a pitcher who pitched to 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 in 2022-2023 be a good thing? Wouldn't he help stabilize the rotation? It certainly seems like a logical move to me.

Realistically, it does make sense to at least look into what Luzardo could bring on the trade market first. After all, The Fish do need hitting help pretty badly. If the right trade return can't be found, then it certainly makes all the sense in the world to lock up the top of the rotation starting pitcher. It is however important to point out that injuries or not, he's currently sitting on a 5.00 ERA/4.25 FIP with just 7.8 K/9 for the season.