Marlins name Jesús Luzardo 2024 Opening Day starter

On March 28 at approximately 4:10 p.m. ET, Jesús Luzardo will have the honors of throwing the first pitch of the 2024 Miami Marlins season, manager Skip Schumaker confirmed on Tuesday.

"He is deserving of it and hopefully this is the first of many for him," Schumaker said. "He's turned himself into the ace of our staff, a guy that has become one of the leaders in that clubhouse and on the staff, and nobody deserves it more than him."

Sandy Alcantara was Miami's Opening Day starter each of the previous four years, but he'll be sidelined this season after undergoing Tommy John surgery in October, so the Marlins knew that streak would be coming to an end. Alcantara isn't pouting about that—he actually delivered the news to Luzardo, Schumaker says.

"I think it'll just be a group effort and being able to just start us off on the right foot, I think that's something awesome," Luzardo said modestly about the upcoming season.

In 2023, Luzardo led all Marlins pitchers in starts (32), strikeouts (208) and both versions of wins above replacement (3.7 fWAR/4.1 bWAR).

Luzardo made his 2024 Grapefruit League debut on Sunday. He retired all six Washington Nationals batters he faced (2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K). He projects to make four or five more tune-up starts between now and March 28 to fully stretch out. Most of those will likely come in public exhibition games, but he may also occasionally get his work in during simulated games on the Roger Dean Chevrolet Stadium backfields when it better suits his throwing schedule.

Toeing the rubber for the Marlins' Opening Day opponent will be Pittsburgh Pirates right-hander Mitch Keller. As I wrote about recently, Luzardo and Keller have quite a lot in common. The main difference is that Keller has signed a contract extension to stay with the Bucs through 2028. Meanwhile, Luzardo's future with the Fish is murky as the front office reportedly assesses whether to capitalize on his immense trade value.

As talented as the 26-year-old Luzardo may be, it's ambitious for Schumaker to float the possibility of him potentially making "many" Opening Day starts in the future. Would he really get to reprise this role in 2025 over a healthy Sandy and a rapidly developing Eury Pérez? Unlikely. Maybe he's the ace of a different team by then, though.

I'm setting the over/under at 2.5 career Opening Day starts for Luzardo. Which side are you taking?