How Max Scherzer has mentored Jesús Luzardo, from NL East ‘pop quizzes’ to offseason training advice

CLEARWATER, Fla. — Not long after Jesús Luzardo was traded to the Phillies, in December 2024, Max Scherzer began giving him impromptu tests.

They’d see each other almost every day at Cressey Sports Performance in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., where both pitchers train during the winter. They were on similar schedules; throwing bullpen sessions and doing workouts early in the morning.

So, Scherzer, the Toronto Blue Jays right-hander who spent parts of nine seasons in the National League East, decided to make the most of this time. He began asking Luzardo how he’d attack different players in the division.

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The three-time Cy Young Award winner would go team by team, hitter by hitter, in rapid-fire succession.

“He would just pop-quiz me,” Luzardo said. “‘What are you going to do to the Braves lineup?’ ‘What are you going to do to the Mets lineup?’

“And I would say it, and he’d go, ‘Nope, wrong. That’s not it. This is how you’re going to do it.’ And then we’d go back and forth. But a lot of times, he was right.”

This was not uncharacteristic for Scherzer. Cressey has a diverse clientele — from big leaguers to high school kids — and the longtime ace is willing to help just about anyone.

But his connection with Luzardo is unique. Eric Cressey, owner of the gym, said that in some ways, the two pitchers are wired similarly.

“Max likes to teach, especially for someone who wants to be great,” Cressey said, “and asks the right questions. And I think that’s where he and Jesús have really hit it off.”

They have other traits in common, like a shared penchant for trash-talking. Luzardo likes to remind Scherzer of his age (41) by calling him “grandpa” and “unc.”

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Scherzer responds by teasing him for going max effort through the doldrums of the offseason.

“Sometimes he’d be like, ‘Hey, you’re long tossing,’” Luzardo said. “‘It’s December. What are we doing?’”

More times than not, there’s a kernel of wisdom in his ribbing. This was especially true of Scherzer’s jokes about Luzardo’s winter routine.

The southpaw has been around the future Hall of Famer for the better part of a decade but really got to know him over the last few years. Luzardo, 28, was in a different stage of his career back then.

He was 23, had just been traded from the Oakland A’s to the Miami Marlins, and wanted to make a strong impression on his new club. Subsequent offseasons were spent trying to earn a spot on the big league roster.

Scherzer would watch as Luzardo threw bullpen sessions at Cressey, hitting the high 90s. He encouraged his pupil — usually with a chirp or a joke — to consider the full arc of a season.

It took a while for this lesson to sink in. Luzardo was thinking more about velocity than he was about pitch shapes, command, location. And he certainly wasn’t thinking about how he would feel in October.

But this winter, he did something different. Instead of taking a week off after the postseason, he took three. The first month of offseason training was not as hard on his body. Luzardo spent less time looking at the radar gun and more on how his pitches actually moved.

“I just knew, the velo is still there,” he said. “I don’t have to go and get it early. And then when I came into camp, as we progressed, it started to come back.”

It did indeed come back. Luzardo is averaging 96.7 mph on his four-seam and two-seam fastballs this spring, a tick up from the 96 mph he averaged last year.

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In his first Grapefruit League game, against the Red Sox on Thursday, his heater averaged 96.9 mph (a 0.4 mph increase) and his sweeper averaged 87.2 mph (a 1.1 mph increase).

“We have conversations,” Scherzer said. “How to train in the different months. How you train in December is different from how you train in February vs. March vs. April, August.

“Each month is kind of different on how you need to prepare for the season. So, it’s a great way to compare notes with what goes on. I’m checking in with all the guys. And he’s a good young arm. And he tends to listen. He wants to learn, and listen. I’m a fan.”

There were a few factors that went into Luzardo’s offseason change. He threw the most innings of his seven-year career last season (183⅔, not including 7⅔ postseason frames).

Cressey, and a few other coaches at the gym, were also encouraging him to ease up on the workload and the velocity.

But Scherzer was the one of the loudest proponents.

“I’ve had him in my ear, telling me that, for three years,” Luzardo said.

“He would always get on me about getting — I guess you could say my intensity got really high, really early in the offseason," he added. “And my intensity was always high because I always wanted to make the team.

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“And now as I get older, I understand what his points were. That it’s a marathon, and you want to be ready to go in October and make a deep run. And you want to be healthy all year.

“So you can’t be 100% in December. And that’s something with time that I learned, but obviously with his help … and his smack talk.”

With 18 big-league seasons behind him, Scherzer knows that it won’t get easier for Luzardo. The opposition will continue to adjust. But when it does, Scherzer will be there to offer tips, tricks, and, of course, the occasional joke.

“He definitely pushes me, in his own way, to be great,” Luzardo said. “A couple years back, I wouldn’t really talk much to him. [He was] a little intimidating, especially when I was younger.

“But the more I got to know him, he’s a great guy, works really hard, and is an example to follow. And he definitely pushes me to be better. And I really appreciate that. He always says, ‘You’ve got all the potential in the world. You’ve just got to go and do it.’”