The Dodgers will have to keep a close eye on what's happening with Marlins starting pitcher Jesus Luzardo. Miami on Saturday placed their 26-year-old left-hander on the 15-day IL with a back injury.
This is the second time this season Luzardo has been on the IL. The first time he missed a couple weeks with tightness in his throwing elbow.
It may be the injury woes that have seen caused his dip in production this season. Last year Luzardo posted a 3.58 ERA in a career-high 32 starts. He walked 55 batters, but struck out 208 in 178.2 innings in what was his first full, healthy season as a pro.
This year his ERA has climbed to 5.00 in 66.2 innings across 12 starts. He's walked 22 and struck out 58.
His price tag at the trade deadline will be interesting, particularly if this back issue winds up costing him more than a couple starts.
For Los Angeles though he's a fascinating prospect who could help them this year and in the long-term. This year he could conceivably start, or work as a bullpen option which is something he did with Oakland prior to getting traded to Miami in 2021. His role this year would depend a lot on how Walker Buehler and Yoshinobu Yamamoto recover from their injuries.
Long-term though there wouldn't be a much better landing spot for Luzardo than with a Dodgers organization that is baseball's best when it comes to developing pitchers. Luzardo will be 26 for virtually all of this season, so he's still relatively young with plenty of runway to harness his electric stuff to become the dominant hurler he's been projected to be since he joined the Nationals farm system as a third-round pick out of high school in the 2016 draft.
Pitching will be on every contender's list of needs at this year's deadline. If Luzardo is back in time to make a couple more starts by July 30, the Dodgers should keep a close eye on those starts to see if Luzardo is healthy enough to be a factor this year.
