While the Philadelphia Phillies' top needs this offseason are centered around a new outfielder, an Alec Bohm trade and a new reliever or two, the club could also use a starting pitcher to replace the unreliable Taijuan Walker.
Walker, 32, just turned in easily the worst performance of his 12-year career, going 3-7 with a 7.10 ERA, 6.94 FIP and 57 ERA+ across 15 starts and four relief appearances. Through and through, he was borderline unplayable for the vast majority of the 2024 campaign and he's not guaranteed a rotation spot out of spring training next year.
The Phillies have been linked to Garrett Crochet practically more than any other team in the league, but these things are far from a sure thing until the deal becomes official. While we wait to see how that shakes out, MLB.com's Mark Feinsand put together an article highlighting one trade chip from all 30 MLB teams, and there's one on a division rival of the Phillies who could especially be of interest.
Jesús Luzardo would be prime Garrett Crochet fall-back option for the Phillies
Feinsand listed left-handed pitcher Jesús Luzardo as the top trade chip for the Phillies' division rival the Miami Marlins. Luzardo comes with a decent amount of injury uncertainty, but Crochet does as well, so the Phillies are clearly already aware of what they're dealing with here.
Luzardo, 27, debuted back in 2019 and has made a full 32-start season just one time, doing so in 2023. He's shown time and time again, especially in the recent past, how strong he can be when he's fully healthy.
Of course, that's been the issue for him. Just this past season, the promising southpaw made just 12 starts and sported a 5.00 ERA and 4.26 FIP through 66 2/3 innings of work. His strikeout numbers were way down, so he obviously just wasn't feeling like himself. When he's on his A-game, he sports K/9 rates above 10.0, but he had a 7.8 K/9 rate this past year.
If/when the Marlins put Luzardo on the block, there's going to be a long list of teams calling. He comes with multiple years of team control, he's young and can be dominant when healthy. The Phillies could very easily match any other club's offer when it comes to prospect capital, so they could be all over him if Crochet doesn't pan out. Making matters even better is that Luzardo would be considerably cheaper than Crochet in potential trade talks, so consider him a budgetary option compared to the top-shelf Crochet.