Luzardo ready for his delayed big league start
The pitcher has dealt with injury, COVID-19
With wins at a premium in this 60-game season, any team can use a shot in the arm.
The A’s will get one tonight when Jesús Luzardo will make his first big league start.
“I’m ready arm strength-wise and mentally as well,” Luzardo said.
“It’s exciting for the whole entire team, the energy he brings,” A’s pitcher Chris Bassitt said. “When he’s on the mound, we’re expecting to win that game, so he’s obviously a boost we need right now.”
The left-hander’s highly-anticipated start has been delayed for almost a year. He was sidelined for six weeks in March 2019 with a rotator cuff injury. In July a strained muscle in his back put him down again. He was locked into the rotation this spring — until the pandemic shut down the game, and then he contracted the coronavirus.
Even without a start under his belt, Luzardo, the A’s No. 1 prospect, is at the forefront of the American League Rookie of the Year conversation. He earned his place there last September with six relief appearances in which he struck out 16 batters in 12 innings and allowed only two runs. Then he threw three scoreless innings (one hit) against Tampa Bay in the wild-card game.
There’s an intangible quality, too, to the 22-year-old Peruvian-Venezuelan.
“The kid is an old soul,” infielder Tony Kemp said.
His moxie is best seen through his confident — not cocky — approach on the mound. The quick pitches, experimentation and ability to throw any of his wide array of pitches at any point.
“I think the way he can manipulate the fastball is impressive enough,” Bassitt said. “He can pitch from 92 to 100, can manipulate speeds form his two-seam to four-seam and has great off-speed. He’s truly the total package.
“If he stays healthy he is a Top 10 pitcher, easily, and is pushing Top 5.”
A pair of errors blemish Luzardo’s two appearances out of the bullpen this season,
in which he’s given up one earned run — three runs total — in 6.2 innings with seven strikeouts and three walks against the Los Angeles Angels and Colorado Rockies. His slider has been particularly devastating, with a high90s fastball that moves. Luzardo has a 1.35 ERA in 2020.
Luzardo spent his time in the bullpen picking brains, particularly Yusmeiro Petit’s,
for some perspective on a relief role he hadn’t experienced much until his big league call up last September.
Yes, Luzardo is fearless, but his close friendships with Mike Fiers, Frankie Montas and Bassitt is helping him key in on the nuances of dialing himself back and thinking through how to adjust to get through big league lineups two, three times through.
“Yeah I like him in the rotation, I like him in the bullpen. I like him pitching,” manager Bob Melvin said. “And he’s shown he can handle both. We’re trying to figure out where he best fits, and at this point in time it looks like the rotation.”
Right-hander Daniel Mengden will move into the bullpen to make room for Luzardo in the five-man rotation.