What’s all the fuss about? Jesus Luzardo, the A’s No. 1 prospect, is impressing major league hitters.
SURPRISE, ARIZ. >> As he sat in front of his locker in the Texas Rangers clubhouse on Thursday morning, Joey Gallo released a slight groan under his breath.
It didn’t take much to trigger the reaction from one of baseball’s rising sluggers who is coming off back-to-back 40 home-run seasons.
The name “Jesus Luzardo” did the trick. Gallo still was a bit frustrated two days after striking out against the A’s elite hard-throwing prospect. But mostly, he was impressed as Luzardo’s reputation grows through the course of spring training where many veterans are getting their first glimpse of the lefthander.
“You can tell,” Gallo said. “He’s going to be an elite pitcher – if he’s not already this year.”
Texas batters were the latest to see what all the fuss is about when the Rangers faced the A’s in a Cactus League game earlier in the week. Luzardo, the No. 1 player in Oakland’s farm system according to MLB.com, pitched 2 2/3 scoreless innings while striking out six.
Afterward, the Florida pitcher complained about not being comfortable with his breaking ball and getting behind too often in the count. Still, the performance kept him in contention to make Oakland’s opening day rotation.
Luzardo will start today against the Giants at Hohokam Stadium in his latest audition.
Opposing hitters won’t exactly feel bad if Oakland executives decide to start Luzardo, 21, in the minors this year.
“It’s not very fun to face him,”
Texas first baseman Ronald Guzman said. “Even though he throws 98” mph, “he can also control his offspeed. He works it in pretty well.”
The Rangers Shin-Soo Choo can’t get over the wicked fastball: “Throws hard, like a literal closer,” the 2018 All-Star outfielder said. “But he’s a starter.”
Luzardo struck out Guzman and Choo consecutively Tuesday. In the second inning, Guzman got locked up by an 0-2 breaking ball that caught the corner of the zone, before Choo swung through a 2-2 offspeed pitch in the next atbat.
“It’s hard to believe he played minor leagues last year,” Choo said.
Luzardo posted a 2.53 earned-run average in 2018 playing in the minors.
Choo, entering his 15th
MLB season this year, said Luzardo is tough to hit because the 6-foot pitcher has so much variety. The fastball hits different parts of the strike zone while the offspeed pitches come almost anytime, regardless of the count.
Then there is Luzardo’s quick delivery, which the rising ace utilized twice against Choo.
“So I don’t have any chance to hit,” Choo said.
The one pitch Choo didn’t face was the changeup. It’s the pitch Luzardo considers his signature offering.
“I wish, I really wanted to see the changeup,” Choo said.
If Choo truly wanted to know, Gallo could tell him all about it.
Luzardo’s first-inning strikeout of Gallo might have been the most impressive sequence of Tuesday’s game. With a runner on first in a lefthander vs. lefthander matchup, Luzardo used a pair of fastballs to put Gallo in an 0-2 hole. The slugger worked the count to full by laying off another heater and two breaking balls.
On the payoff pitch, though, Luzardo came with the changeup. Gallo barely flinched while going down looking.
“Ended up getting me on that,” Gallo said. “To command a 3-2 offspeed pitch early in the game like that, it’s impressive. I think everyone was like, ‘This guy’s a pretty impressive pitcher.’ ”
Here is what Gallo didn’t know: Oakland catcher Nick Hundley had signaled for Luzardo to throw a fastball in that situation. For most young pitchers, a fastball would have been the safest, if not the only, option. Anything else, they’d risk walking the batter.
Luzardo shook off the catcher. Forget that he’s yet to appear in the majors and has but two years of minor league experience.
Luzardo knew exactly what he wanted to do.
“That’s a high pitching IQ, high-pitch ability to be able to execute that,” Hundley said.
Moments such as Tuesday’s might make it tough for the A’s to send Luzardo down to begin the season. Last summer, he climbed the minor-league ladder quickly, progressing from Single-A Stockton to Double-A Midland in less than a month, before ending the year with Triple-A Nashville. At those levels, he’s already a well-known and much-feared name.
“You can see why everyone is talking about him,” said Giants outfielder Chris Shaw, who went against Luzardo in a Triple-A game last August. “It’s electric stuff.”
Luzardo’s not yet a finished product. He has acknowledged his overall command needs work, while A’s manager Bob Melvin wants Luzardo to retire hitters with his fastball as well as he does with offspeed pitches.
“It’s easy to get outs in the minor leagues with the breaking stuff,” Melvin said. “When you get in trouble, you go to your breaking stuff. He’s going to be able to go out there exclusively with his fastball and get outs.”
Melvin, though, likes the improvement he has seen in spring training.
“At the big-league level, you need to get ahead and you need to establish your fastball,” the manager said. “He’s doing that now.”
Just ask those hitters who have faced him.