How Jesus Luzardo went from ‘lowest point’ to Opening Day starter for hometown Marlins
As Jesus Luzardo Sr. and Monica Luzardo sat amid the frenzy that was Citizens Bank Park on Oct. 3, all they could feel was a bursting sense of pride.
There they were, watching their son pitch in Game 1 of the Miami Marlins’ wild card series against the Philadelphia Phillies.
Two decades earlier, the Luzardos were in the stands for one of the Marlins’ 2003 World Series games against the New York Yankees. Their son, Jesus Luzardo, was 6 years old at the time.
Now, in the first playoff game the Marlins have played in a full season since that World Series, Luzardo was on the mound. The result wasn’t what they had hoped for — Luzardo gave up three runs over four innings in an eventual 4-1 Marlins loss.
“But at that point,” Jesus Sr. said, “it didn’t matter the score or the result. ... We’re very proud of him. We grew up Marlins fans. We enjoy him being a major leaguer, but the opportunity for him to be one of the key players for his hometown team and be able to help them get into a postseason run was awesome.”
The feel-good moments will continue for the Luzardo family Thursday.
When Luzardo steps onto the loanDepot park mound as the Marlins begin the 2024 season against the Pittsburgh Pirates, he will accomplish another of his lifelong dreams.
Luzardo, who grew up in Parkland and graduated from Stoneman Douglas, will officially be the Opening Day starter for his hometown team.
“It’s definitely sunk in,” said Luzardo, 26 and entering his sixth MLB season. “I’m excited. Definitely trying to keep all the emotions out of it, but for sure I’m excited. I have a lot of family and a lot of friends coming into town and that are already in town for it. We’re looking forward to it.”
It’s the latest full-circle moment for Luzardo, who frequently attending Marlins Opening Day growing up and remembers watching the likes of Ricky Nolasco and Josh Beckett be the first pitchers to take the mound.
It’s also his latest moment of validation.
Luzardo was at a potential crossroads when he joined the Marlins midway through the 2021 season. His career hadn’t taken off with the Oakland Athletics and he was starting to have doubts if it ever would. Now came the added pressure of trying to salvage that dream while playing for the team he rooted for his entire life.
“When I got traded over,” Luzardo said, “I was at the lowest point in my career. At times, I felt like maybe this isn’t for me; maybe I’m not a big-league pitcher.”
Luzardo has not only resurrected his career over the past two-and-a-half years, but he is thriving in the process. He has gone from being an uncertainty to a reliable cog in Miami’s rotation.
The Marlins will lean heavily on Luzardo, especially to start the season considering the current state of the club’s starting rotation. Sandy Alcantara, Miami’s ace and Opening Day starter the past four years, won’t pitch in 2024 while rehabbing from Tommy John surgery. Braxton Garrett (left shoulder soreness), Eury Perez (right elbow inflammation) and Edward Cabrera (right shoulder impingement) are starting the season on the injured list as well.
“I know he’s going to embrace the pressure that goes with that No. 1 spot,” pitching coach Mel Stottlemyre Jr. said.
Luzardo, however, said he doesn’t feel pressure. With what he’s gone through to get to this point, his focus is on what he has to do to be ready every fifth game.
“Just go out there and be myself,” Luzardo said. “I feel like I’m prepared for what’s to come and I’m ready to carry on whatever load that needs to get carried.”
‘The trajectory is just crazy’
It wasn’t always that cut-and-dry that Luzardo would reach this point, though.
When then-Marlins general manager Kim Ng swung the trade that brought Luzardo to Miami, sending outfielder Starling Marte to Oakland in return, there was an understanding that Luzardo was going to be a work in progress.
To that point in his career, Luzardo had flashed the traits to be a potential star — a hard-throwing lefty with swing-and-miss secondary pitches — but the results didn’t match the talent. He had a 4.79 ERA in 109 innings with Oakland. In 2023 alone, his ERA skyrocketed to 6.87 in 13 games (six starts) before being traded to Miami.
He didn’t fare much better immediately after the trade (a 6.44 ERA over 12 Miami starts to close the 2021 season), but the Marlins weren’t overly concerned with the struggles. They wanted him to pitch through them and get up-close guidance from Stottlemyre so he had a better understanding of what he needed to fix in the offseason.
While the Marlins had Luzardo penciled into their long-term plans, the uncertainty lingered.
“I didn’t know if I was gonna be in the rotation,” Luzardo said.
He did make the roster in 2022 as the No. 5 pitcher in the rotation and showed glimpses of what could come. In 18 starts, he posted a 3.32 ERA with 120 strikeouts against 35 walks, a .191 batting average against and a 1.04 walks and hits per inning pitched rate over 100 1/3 innings.
The only blemish on Luzardo’s season that year was a left forearm strain sustained six starts into the season. He missed two-and-a-half months. When he returned, he posted a 3.03 ERA and a .198 batting average against over his final 12 starts.
That pushed him to being the No. 2 starter behind Alcantara in 2023 and went on to have a career season. Luzardo assumed the No. 1 pitcher role over the final month of the season and for the playoffs after Alcantara sustained a season-ending elbow injury in early September that ultimately resulted in needing Tommy John surgery. Luzardo made all 32 of his scheduled starts and pitched to a 3.58 ERA while setting career-highs in innings pitched (178 2/3) and strikeouts (208).
“The trajectory is just crazy to think about,” Luzardo said, “and I do think everything happens for a reason. It wasn’t planned. It just kind of worked out this way.”
Luzardo did his part to put himself in a position to succeed. He made regular drives from Parkland to Cressey Sports Performance in Palm Beach Gardens — about a 45-minute drive each way on a good day — during the offseason. He dove into video work. He tweaked his mechanics. He improved his game-planning and pitch sequencing.
“There was a sacrifice,” Stottlemyre said. “He took his lumps, and he’s earned it. Really proud of him sticking with that commitment and that process because when you’re young and you don’t get the results that you get all the time, it’s really easy to waver from that process.
“He stuck with it.”
‘I’m never alone out there’
Luzardo didn’t get to this point alone.
A large support system — from the unwavering encouragement of his family to the gained trust of his new coaching staff once he got to Miami — gave Luzardo the confidence to unlock his talent and show he can be a front-line starting pitcher.
“It definitely takes a village,” Luzardo said. “At the end of the day, a lot of the work was just between my ears and mental, but it took a lot to get there. ... A lot of people helped me get out of the dumps in their own specific ways.”
Family support has been paramount for Luzardo throughout his career. His parents are at almost every game and have helped him through every step of his baseball career.
And then there’s the man who isn’t here to see Luzardo’s career unfold in person.
Nicolas Alvarez, Luzardo’s grandfather on his mom’s side, died in 2022, just before Luzardo’s career with the Marlins really began to take off. The two bonded over baseball and McDonald’s. Alvarez loved the Marlins because of the Venezuelan flare to the roster, including the likes of Anibal Sanchez and Miguel Cabrera.
“He was my biggest supporter, besides my mom and my dad for sure,” Luzardo said. “He was part of the reason why I fell in love with the game. He also was part of the reason why I fell in love with the Marlins.”
How does Luzardo think Alvarez would have reacted to where Luzardo is now in his career?
“He’d be in tears for sure,” Luzardo said. “I know that he’d be extremely excited. He’ll be with me on Opening Day. I’m never alone out there.”
As the years have gone by, Monica has noticed her son’s confidence and maturity grow. That brings a smile to her face.
“He’s happier in general,” Monica Luzardo said. “He’s with a team that he dreamed of playing for. This is his place.”
‘He wants to inspire’
While Luzardo is still making a name for himself in the big leagues, he hasn’t forgotten his roots.
Every offseason since 2021, Luzardo holds an annual baseball clinic at Stoneman Douglas with former high school teammate Colton Welker. The day-long camp has grown from about 75 kids in its first season to about 150 this year.
“He wants to make an impact in the community because he knows how important his voice and presence is,” Monica Luzardo said. “He wants to inspire kids.”
Luzardo also takes time to mentor current players on the Stoneman Douglas baseball team, which has won three consecutive state titles.
When Luzardo was rising through the high school ranks, he remembered Anthony Rizzo stopping by Stoneman Douglas to speak with the current team. Luzardo knew if he ever got to the big leagues, he wanted to do the same thing.
The last two years, it was pitchers Jake Clemente and Christian Rodriguez, both of whom are now playing at the University of Florida. This year, he’s keeping an eye on sophomore lefty Gio Rojas, a University of Miami commit.
“It’s just nice to go back,” Luzardo said. “I see a lot of myself in some of those guys. … I remember the people that came to talk to me and helped me out. I wanted to be one of those influences for them.”
It provides Luzardo a reminder of how his baseball career began.
His journey started when he was just a few months old and his dad bought him a foam bat and ball. When Luzardo was 3, not long after the family moved to Parkland, his room regularly became a makeshift baseball diamond.
His favorite pitchers growing up: Fellow Venezuelans Johan Santana and Felix Hernandez plus Marlins standout Dontrelle Willis.
While the Luzardo family always had a love for baseball, it wasn’t until Luzardo was 9 that he started focusing on the sport full time and wasn’t until his sophomore year at Stoneman Douglas that he truly felt he had a chance to turn the sport into a career.
Despite having to undergo Tommy John surgery his senior year, the Washington Nationals drafted him in the third round of the 2016 MLB Draft. He was traded to Oakland a year later and made his MLB debut late in the 2019 season.
Two years later, he found his way back home to Miami.
“I feel like it’s tough at times to sit back and reflect and think about it,” Luzardo said. “I try not to get too caught up in it, but at the same time, it is nice, especially during the offseason, to sit back and think about my time as a kid and all the good memories I had watching baseball and how my love for baseball grew watching the Marlins. Being able to continue playing the game that I love for the team that I grew up rooting for is just a blessing.”
An ace? ‘I hope to earn that title’
For Marlins manager Skip Schumaker, the pivotal moment in Luzardo’s development last season came July 23. The Marlins had lost a season-high eight consecutive games coming out of the All-Star Break when Luzardo took the ball in their series finale against the Colorado Rockies.
Luzardo had given up just one run through six innings before putting runners on the corners with two outs in the seventh. Schumaker trotted to the mound.
“With some guys, sometimes you see the look or they’re kind of handing you the ball already and they kind of make the decision for you,” Schumaker said that day. “With Zeus, you could tell he was staying on the mound.”
Luzardo wound up striking out Brenton Doyle to strand the two runners and cap arguably the best start of his MLB career — seven innings (tying a career high), 13 strikeouts (a career high), one run on four hits and two walks, 115 pitches (a career high). Miami won the game 3-2 in 10 innings.
“That set the tone for the rest of the season,” Schumaker said. “There’s a different feeling when your ace is on the mound that day coming to the ballpark. People started feeling that with Zeus last year and I started feeling it with Zeus as well. Everybody knew when it was Sandy’s day, and I think everybody started to know when it was Zeus’ day.”
Luzardo has the qualities of an ace, the definition of which can vary from person to person.
For Luzardo, an ace is “a tone setter, a leader, someone that when they take the mound, the whole team has confidence behind them.”
“That’s someone that I want to be,” Luzardo said. “It’s not forced. I think an ace is just something that just comes. It’s confidence, a feeling that everyone has around you. It’s not self-proclaimed. It’s something that gets given to you. You’ve got to earn that, and that’s what I plan to do. I hope to earn that title.”
To Stottlemyre, Luzardo is well on his way. Thursday, Opening Day, is the next chapter on that path.
“He knows himself,” Stottlemyre Jr. said, “and he’s our guy right now.”
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