Phillies Cannot Use Luzardo Until the Final Day

The Phillies placed All-Star left-hander Jesús Luzardo on the 15-day injured list Tuesday with left shoulder inflammation. The move is backdated to Sept. 12, so he cannot pitch until Sept. 27, the last day of the regular season.

Philadelphia is 83-68, a half-game behind the Chicago Cubs for the top National League wild card, with 11 games left and no Luzardo in the rotation.

Eligible on Sept. 27, and Not a Day Sooner

Interim manager Don Mattingly said medical staff thought Luzardo was better Tuesday, just not as far along as they wanted. “Nothing’s really changed as far as our thinking, anything more than just making sure he’s healthy before he pitches again,” Mattingly said before a two-game set at Washington.

The 15-day clock, used to the three-day maximum, lands on Game 162 against Tampa Bay. A full start that afternoon would keep him out of the Wild Card Series that starts Sept. 29. The first day the roster lets him pitch is the one that would waste him for the round that decides whether October continues.

Mattingly even sketched the other side of that bind. In his mind Luzardo might be ready in six days, which from Tuesday is Sept. 21, and still could not be activated. “I don’t know that answer, honestly, but I do think it’s a possibility,” he said, asked if he would start Luzardo in a playoff game after three weeks off.

Major League Baseball posted the transaction the same afternoon, with Mattingly’s note that a postseason start is not off the table.

Phillies place LHP Jesús Luzardo on the 15-day IL with left shoulder inflammation. They are not ruling him out for a potential start in the Postseason, per Phillies interim manager Don Mattingly. pic.twitter.com/QfJr7Yrsh2

— MLB (@MLB) September 15, 2026

Luzardo Shut Himself Down on Tuesday

Luzardo, 28, spent hours in treatment at Nationals Park on the club’s off day Monday. Trainers wanted to see him play catch Tuesday. He already knew he would not.

I told them I don’t feel comfortable throwing. I know where we’re at. I know it’s an important part of the season. I want to be out there for the guys. But I feel like I’d be doing a disservice to them if I’m not at my best.

Jesús Luzardo, Phillies pitcher, at Nationals Park

An MRI on Saturday showed no structural damage. He did not throw Sunday or Monday, and he will not take a shot for the inflammation. Daily treatment is the plan, with catch by the end of the week as the hopeful version, not the expected one. “We’ve made a lot of progress, and it feels way better,” he said. “But just not ready.”

Asked if he can pitch in the playoffs, he said, “Yeah. Guaranteed.” Then he pulled that back a step. “I say guaranteed, like, in my mind I can say I will. I can’t say a hundred percent: ‘Oh, yeah, I’m going to start for this team.’ But that’s the goal, and I feel confident that I can make that happen.”

FanGraphs has him at 5.5 wins above replacement this season, with a 2.78 FIP, a 30.4% strikeout rate, a 7.2% walk rate and a 48.3% ground-ball rate. He is 14-5 with a 2.87 ERA in 29 starts, 221 strikeouts in 178.2 innings, 52 walks and a 1.08 WHIP. The strikeouts rank second in the National League, the innings third, the ERA seventh.

If he had started throwing Tuesday and the shoulder flared, he said the postseason would be gone. So the club waits, on a pitcher who has already been the rotation’s steadiest arm since mid-May.

Eight Days After a 109-Pitch Shutout

Luzardo’s last outing was Labor Day at Citizens Bank Park, his 150th career start and the first time he had ever recorded an out in the ninth. He threw a two-hit shutout in 1 hour, 51 minutes, walked one, struck out 12, and needed 109 pitches and 78 strikes. Kyle Schwarber’s 43rd homer in the eighth was the only run. “I like pitching fast and I like fast games,” Luzardo said that afternoon.

He struck out six Braves on sweepers, part of 132 strikeouts on that pitch this year, and got 23 swings and misses. Braves manager Walt Weiss called it about as good as it gets. Luzardo went out for the ninth at 92 pitches, walked Ronald Acuña Jr., then punched out Drake Baldwin and retired Ozzie Albies on a first-pitch changeup.

He said the next day, playing catch, still felt fine. “If I would have thrown six innings in that game, it still would have been the same,” he said Tuesday. “Throughout the whole game, I felt great. So it was something that I think just compounded throughout a couple starts.”

FROM THE SHOULDER TO GAME 162

1. Sept. 7: Completes a two-hit shutout of Atlanta, the first complete game of his career.
2. Sept. 12: Scratched in Atlanta with left shoulder stiffness; an MRI finds no structural damage.
3. Sept. 13-14: Does not throw on either day.
4. Sept. 15: Goes on the 15-day IL, backdated to Sept. 12, after telling trainers he is not comfortable throwing.
5. Sept. 27: First date he can be activated, Game 162 against the Rays.
6. Sept. 29: Wild Card Series opens, two days after that finale.

August had already been his month. He went 3-0 with a 1.31 ERA in 34.1 innings and 46 strikeouts and won NL Pitcher of the Month. His last seven starts are 5-0 with a 1.08 ERA in 50 innings and 64 strikeouts. Since May 14 he is 11-2 with a 1.93 ERA in 21 starts.

THE LAST THREE STARTS

That is the arm they just parked. Career numbers sit at 55-46 with a 3.92 ERA, 996 strikeouts and 874.1 innings, built with Oakland, Miami and, after a Dec. 22, 2024 trade, Philadelphia. Born in Lima, Peru, and listed at 6-foot and 218 pounds, he is in his second year in red pinstripes and his first as an All-Star.

A Half-Game Back, With 11 Left

The Phillies lost 6-3 at Washington on Tuesday, the same night the IL became official, and have dropped 8 of their last 12. They sit 5.5 games behind Atlanta in the East, so the wild card is the live path. The Cubs are 84-68. San Diego is 82-69. Arizona is 80-72.

NL WILD CARD, THROUGH SEPT. 15

Philadelphia has played 151 games, Chicago 152, which is why the Cubs’ lead is a half-game rather than a full one. The Phillies own the head-to-head tiebreaker against the Padres and lose it to the Cubs, Braves and Dodgers. Right now the bracket has them as the No. 5 seed, opening on the road at Chicago. That half-game is the difference between hosting a best-of-three and packing for Wrigley.

Mattingly’s line after the IL news was the whole September problem in one breath. “I don’t think anyone’s worried this is long term, this is into next year or anything like that,” he said. “I think we do think he’s going to be ready to pitch at the end of the year. We just have to take care of our business to get there.”

Who Starts Until He Is Eligible?

Zack Wheeler is lined up Wednesday at Washington. Aaron Nola is next, Thursday at the Mets. Cristopher Sánchez, who took the ball Tuesday and lasted 6 1/3 innings with five runs, eight hits, two walks, five strikeouts and 98 pitches, is due again Sunday in New York. His record is 17-6. Wheeler is 12-5 with a 3.14 ERA.

The club has not locked the fifth turn. Mattingly said a bullpen game has to land somewhere, and Friday at Citi Field is the first open date. Andrew Painter is the other name in that mix. For the rest of the regular season the staff is on a four-starter-plus-committee plan, the extra day coming every time Luzardo’s turn comes up.

Philadelphia first said it had recalled right-hander Grant Holman from Triple-A Lehigh Valley, then switched the corresponding move to left-hander Kyle Backhus. Holman had already been optioned Sept. 13 after facing Atlanta on Saturday. Backhus is the arm on the 28-man roster now.

PHILLIES GAMES LEFT

• Sept. 16: at Washington, Wheeler scheduled.
• Sept. 17-20: four games at the Mets, Nola on Thursday, a bullpen game or Painter in the mix, Sánchez on Sunday.
• Sept. 21: off day before the homestand.
• Sept. 22-24: Milwaukee at Citizens Bank Park, the NL Central champions.
• Sept. 25-27: Tampa Bay at home, with Sept. 27 the first date Luzardo can come off the IL.

That slate is Nationals, Mets, Brewers, Rays. It is not a bye. The fifth day of the rotation was already the soft spot, and the club did not add a starter in August, so the committee is now the plan rather than a one-off.

Wheeler and Sánchez Still Get Their Rest

Mattingly said the Phillies will still space Wheeler and Sánchez over these two weeks rather than squeeze them to cover Luzardo’s missing starts. That is the other half of the bet. The two remaining rotation pillars get October innings, and the bullpen, Painter and Nola eat the innings in between.

Sánchez has been the Cy Young name on the staff for much of the year and has a 5.06 ERA over his last five starts, a slide that Tuesday did not snap. Wheeler, back from a blood clot and thoracic outlet syndrome, has the postseason résumé, including a 2.18 ERA in 11 career playoff starts. Nola, after a rough first half, would be the third starter if Luzardo cannot take a wild-card turn.

If the Phillies win a Wild Card Series without him, they buy another week of rest and can point him at a Division Series. If the shoulder only allows shorter work, the club will weigh an opener or a relief look rather than a full start, people in the organization have said. None of those paths help the 11 games that start Wednesday.

Nola Is Next if the Shoulder Is Not Ready

Luzardo put the timetable in the plainest words he had. “If this was like March, June, July, no big deal,” he said. “I’d probably take my time to come back and be ready to go. But it’s such a compressed timetable with the postseason coming up. We’re kind of in a race for it.”

He will not start throwing into a setback just to take the ball on Sept. 27. That finale against Tampa Bay is a legal date, not a medical one, and using it as a full start would knock him out of a series that begins 48 hours later. The cleaner October path is the one that leaves Game 162 to someone else.

Level of concern for the future, he said, is not that high, because the MRI was clean and the pain should fade. “I know it’s something that’ll go away with time. But, right now, we don’t have that much time.”