Jesús Luzardo endures attacks after declining Venezuela’s World Baseball Classic plea and staying with Phillies
His family's homeland asked him to come off the reserve list and replicate his 2023 magic, but Luzardo opted to stay on his spring training schedule. The internet was unkind.
CLEARWATER, Fla. — It usually takes about a day for social media to ruin everything. In the case of Jesús Luzardo, it’s right on time.
Monday was one day after the news broke that Luzardo and the Phillies decided it would be best for him to decline an invitation from Team Venezuela to pitch in the World Baseball Classic final on Tuesday if Venezuela made it that far.
Luzardo was born in Peru, but his family is from Venezuela, for whom he pitched brilliantly in the 2023 WBC and who placed him on the reserve list. He also grew up in the Miami area, where the semifinal and final are being played. That’s why he told two reporters Sunday that it “breaks my heart not being able to be there.”
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On Monday morning, his heart was breaking for another reason. Many Venezuelan fans were angry that he didn’t accept the invitation.
“I feel like sometimes, you get painted as a traitor, or, you know, you get painted in this, like, negative light, because of some things that people say — you know, not only me, but my family,” Luzardo said Monday morning. “And I think that that’s tough. People from Venezuela are, like, ‘Why aren’t you helping us out?’”
Traitor? Really? A quick scan of popular social media outlets uncovered zero references to Luzardo as a traitor.
I asked Luzardo at lunchtime if he was sure about all the negative feedback.
“It’s there,” he replied, with a pained smile. “I know.”
Where? Twitter? Instagram?
“I’m not on social,” he said. “I just know what I saw and what I heard.”
Hmm. Here’s a thought: Maybe he was hearing it in Spanish, not English.
Bingo.
And there it was.
Comments under Instagram posts announcing Luzardo’s decision were … harsh.
They questioned his commitment to Venezuela, and many told him to pitch for Peru. They questioned his manhood. One poster dropped a poop emoji.
Why all the acrimony?
It’s important to understand the significance of the tournament to Venezuelans, for whom baseball is not just the national sport, but a pastime bordering on the religious. It’s sort of like Jalen Hurts turning down a Team USA for football.
To be fair, some folks understood and supported Luzardo’s decision. There were several rational replies. A few commented on comments and defended Luzardo’s decision. But the majority of the reactions were negative, personal, and hurtful.
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It wasn’t just the mean tweets and nasty ’grams, either.
“When a headline came out the other day, and said [Team Venezuela] called me, and I just said, ‘No,’ because I didn’t want to — couldn’t be further from the truth, right?” Luzardo asked. “I think that really kind of rubbed me the wrong way, because that wasn’t truth.”
The truth is, Luzardo loves the World Baseball Classic, and he loves representing Venezuela.
The truth is, he said in 2023 that he’d fulfilled his grandfather’s dream by pitching for Team Venezuela.
The truth is, Luzardo was negotiating an arbitration settlement with Miami the first time Venezuela asked him to play. That will pay him $11 million this season. He then signed a five-year, $135 million contract extension with the Phillies last week.
The truth is, after missing time in 2019, 2022, and 2024 with injuries, Luzardo enjoyed a superb 2025 and is finally fulfilling the immense promise that made him the No. 18 prospect in all of baseball when the Athletics called him up in 2019. After being traded to Philadelphia from Miami on Dec. 22, 2024, Luzardo went 15-7 with a 3.92 ERA, finished seventh in National League Cy Young Award voting, and pitched well as a starter and a reliever in the Phillies’ brief playoff run.
The truth is, Luzardo logged a career-high 191⅓ innings including playoffs, he has a history of injuries, and he is on a precise buildup program this spring. That’s partly because Luzardo’s profile in the rotation this year will be two clicks higher to start the season: Staff ace Zack Wheeler is coming back from thoracic outlet decompression surgery that will cost him at least the first month, and Ranger Suárez has departed to the Red Sox via free agency.
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Yes, two weeks ago, as Luzardo declined his initial invitation, he said that if Venezuela made the final four, “If they need me, I’ll go.” That gave Venezuela reasonable hope.
Things change.
“When I spoke to Venezuela about being on the reserves, I said, ‘No promises,’” Luzardo said Monday. “They said, ‘We’ll understand if you’re not able to come.’ … It was for multiple reasons, it wasn’t able to come to fruition. Not only the contract situation, but other situations here that, you know — my obligations to this team. They want me to be ready to go. I have to make those [obligations] right.”
The truth is, it would have been foolish for Luzardo to risk an appearance in the WBC, no matter how important the tournament might be to Venezuela, or to him.
“I’m hopeful that in the next Classic, you know, they’ll take me into account,” Luzardo said. “I’d love to be there again.”