Phillies avoid arbitration with Luzardo ahead of deadline

Phillies avoid arbitration with Luzardo ahead of deadline originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia

The Phillies avoided salary arbitration with left-hander Jesus Luzardo by reportedly reaching a one-year contract on Thursday, the deadline for players and teams to exchange figures.

The deal is for $6.225 million, according to MLB.com.

The newest member of the Phillies’ rotation, Luzardo was acquired from the Miami Marlins just before Christmas for shortstop prospect Starlyn Caba and outfielder Emaarion Boyd. MLB.com had ranked Caba as the Phils’ No. 4 prospect before the trade and he’s now third on the Marlins’ list.

Luzardo expected to be dealt this offseason because of his rising salary and the Marlins’ perpetual rebuild. Miami has only one player — Sandy Alcantara — with a guaranteed salary in 2025 and even after factoring in expected arbitration raises, nobody else making even $4 million. Luzardo would have been an unnecessary luxury for a team that knows it will lose 100 games in 2025 and the Phillies were able to add a high-upside pitcher without parting with Andrew Painter, Aidan Miller or Justin Crawford.

The $6.225M contract for Luzardo is not a surprise as teams and players have a good idea entering the arbitration process each year of their salary range based on past cases of players with comparable numbers. MLBTradeRumors projects arbitration salaries every year and pegged Luzardo at $6M. https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2024/10/projected-arbitration-salaries-for-2025.html

The Phillies avoided arbitration with two others earlier this offseason, signing right-handed reliever Jose Ruiz to a one-year, $1.22M deal and Garrett Stubbs for $925,000.

Players are eligible for salary arbitration when they have between 3-6 years of MLB service time and no contract for the following season.

The Phillies’ remaining unresolved cases for 2025 are Ranger Suarez, Alec Bohm, Edmundo Sosa, Brandon Marsh and Bryson Stott. Absent an agreement ahead of Thursday’s deadline, the team will exchange salary figures with each of them and separate hearings would be scheduled for mid-February. The sides can reach an agreement at any point between now and then. If they don’t, a panel of arbitrators chooses either the figure submitted by the team or the player. The range typically isn’t wide. Last year, Bohm won his case and was awarded $4M rather than the team’s $3.4M offer.

This is Suarez’ final year before free agency and he is projected to earn approximately $9M. Bohm shouldn’t be too far behind in the $8M range. Bohm, Luzardo and Sosa all have one more year of arbitration eligibility in 2026 and are set for free agency ahead of 2027.