During the offseason, the Philadelphia Phillies made one of their biggest moves in the form of a trade as they acquired promising young starter Jesús Luzardo from the Miami Marlins. In doing so, the Phillies had to give up some valuable assets that included No. 4 prospect Starlyn Caba and No. 23 prospect Emaarion Boyd, per MLB Pipeline. Nevertheless, Philadelphia was willing to take the chance on Luzardo to help further solidify their elite rotation that already consists of Zack Wheeler, Aaron Nola, Cristopher Sánchez and Ranger Suárez.

With that in mind, if Friday’s performance is any indication of what Luzardo has in store for the Phillies and their fans for the upcoming 2025 season, then they should be in for a real treat. In his spring training debut against the Boston, the 27-year-old left-hander was wheeling and dealing, promptly setting down the Red Sox players in order six up and six down over the first two innings of the game.

Jesús Luzardo scintillating Phillies spring training debut

But it was Luzardo’s dominance in the way he accomplished it that surely caught the eyes of many. His fastball was pumping close to 98 mph, according to MLB.com’s Todd Zolecki, this despite being still early in the spring, while throwing 14 of his 19 pitches for strikes. Moreover, Luzardo didn’t need to go more than five pitches against any of the batters, along with inducing weak contact for those that actually connected with the ball. Ultimately, he held the Red Sox hitless with two nasty strikeouts on change-ups over his two innings of work.

Having a solid start to spring training is crucial for both Luzardo and the Phillies. For Luzardo, he’s looking to bounce back from his injury-filled season last year in which he ended up posting a less-than-stellar 5.00 ERA and 1.25 WHIP with just a 21.2 percent strikeout rate with the Marlins. That was after posting two consecutive strong seasons in 2022 and 2023 when he maintained an ERA below 3.60 while averaging close to a 29 percent strikeout rate. So Friday’s performance will no doubt give him a huge jolt of confidence going into the season.

As for the Phillies, after struggling to find a fifth starter to complement their starting four for practically all of 2024, they may finally have one now in Luzardo. With Suárez also a pending free agent upon the conclusion of the 2025 season, Luzardo would also give that much-needed insurance depth in the rotation no matter whatever situation arises.

The Phillies will hope that their huge investment from this past winter could become one of their x-factors in helping the team to finally fulfill their destiny in capturing a World Series title.