Jesus Luzardo is off to a rough start, but Philadelphia Phillies fans shouldn't be overly concerned just yet.
The Philadelphia Phillies have been one of the more disappointing teams in baseball in the early stages of the 2026 MLB campaign, and one of the biggest letdowns has been the performance of Jesus Luzardo.
Fresh off signing a five-year, $135 million extension with the Phillies shortly before the season began, Luzardo has pitched to the tune of a 7.94 ERA over his first four starts, surrendering an MLB-worst 20 earned runs on 28 hits over 22.2 innings of work.
So, is it time to hit the panic button on Luzardo? Or should we be patient?
For now, the latter is the way to go.
While Luzardo's numbers look ugly, especially in his most recent outing when he coughed up nine runs — eight earned — on 12 hits in an 11-2 loss to the Chicago Cubs, his peripherals indicate that a turnaround is imminent.
Luzardo owns a 2.89 FIP, indicating that he isn't exactly getting a ton of help from his defense behind him. His 6.00 K/BB ratio shows that his control has been tremendous, and his .417 BABIP is a clear sign that the left-hander is getting very unlucky.
Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Jesus Luzardo. Credit: Kyle Ross-Imagn Images.What's more, Luzardo has induced ground balls 50 percent of the time on contact, and he is generating soft contact 17.5 percent of the time. That's actually his best mark since 2020, when he made just 12 appearances and nine starts for the Athletics.
On top of all of that, Luzardo owns a 3.59 xERA (expected ERA), so you have to figure that at some point, the results will begin to reflect the underlying statistics.
Plus, we are still just several weeks into the regular season. The sample size has been very small, and Luzardo's nightmarish outing against the Cubs has obviously inflated his ERA.
It's too soon to worry about the 28-year-old, who logged a 3.92 ERA while allowing 167 hits and racking up 216 strikeouts across 183.2 frames last year.
Yes, Luzardo can be maddeningly inconsistent, but what we are seeing from him right now seems to be a massive outlier.
If Luzardo is still struggling 10 starts into his campaign, then maybe we can start to express some legitimate concern. But for now, Luzardo appears to be the victim of bad luck more than anything else.
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