Phillies lefties Cristopher Sánchez and Jesús Luzardo explore ‘other avenues of getting guys out’

LAKELAND, Fla. — In their first appearances of the spring, Phillies left-handers Cristopher Sánchez and Jesús Luzardo lit up the radar gun.

Sánchez touched 99 miles per hour with his sinker on Tuesday, and Luzardo neared 98 mph with his on Friday. But in addition to the high heat, both pitchers also flashed tweaked sliders as new tools in their respective arsenals.

In 2024, Sánchez’s slider was a tertiary option behind his sinker-changeup combination. The pitch had an expected batting average of .239 but still had some inconsistencies. So over the offseason, he worked on refining it.

“It’s getting to one that he can land backdoor to a righty and has a better chance to get to the back foot to the righty from more of a centralized spot on the plate,” Phillies pitching coach Caleb Cotham said. “Last year, it was a good pitch. He just wants it to be great.”

The main difference is in Sánchez’s mindset during his delivery, Cotham said. Sánchez now thinks “behind” the ball instead of on top of it.

“I threw it a little more like a curveball before,” Sánchez said through an interpreter. “It had a little more vertical break, and now it’s a little more horizontal.”

Last season, Sánchez threw his slider only 16.9% of the time. Cotham said it’s not necessarily the plan for him to increase that usage in 2025, but developing a slider he can land consistently gives him an additional weapon in an arsenal the rest of the league has become familiar with.

“We’ll see how the league reacts, because he’s definitely going to have the respect of the league,” Cotham said. “Not that he didn’t have it last year, but he’s really good, so I think he’s going to get even more of a plan. They’ll respond to him, and he just wants to be ahead of that. He likes to get them out.”

Luzardo is also testing out a sweeping slider with more horizontal break. It’s not as pronounced a sweeper as the one Orion Kerkering is known for, but it is a slight variation of something that already is a key component of his pitch mix.

“My go-to slider has been my bread-and-butter my whole career, so that’s something we don’t want to mess with,” Luzardo said. “But we’re exploring other avenues of getting guys out.”

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When the Phillies acquired Luzardo from the Marlins in December, he brought with him an arsenal of a four-seam fastball, changeup, sinker, and that “go-to” slider. Even while Luzardo was dealing with a back injury in 2024 that affected his numbers, opposing hitters averaged .200 against his slider with a 48% swing-and-miss rate.

That pitch isn’t going anywhere. But Luzardo had already been toying with adding something new when he started talking to Cotham over the offseason. The new sweepy slider has a slightly different grip.

“It’s definitely a wrinkle that you can stretch the zone to lefties,” Cotham said. “Still playing around with it. ... Hopefully it settles in, maybe a little bit different speed gap, a little bit more length, just to collect some strikes to righties and protect his arsenal.”

Both pitches are still new and have only been tested in one game. Luzardo threw two of his new sliders on Friday and said he was happy with the results. Sánchez and Luzardo will continue to tweak throughout the spring.

Still, Cotham wants them to keep it simple.

“I’d rather have a white-belt pitch with a black-belt plan with it,” Cotham said. “Rather than, ‘Oh, I throw this kick change and I X-grip it.’ I could do all these fancy things, but I can’t throw it for the zone, so hitters don’t respect it. I’d rather just have a simple one, that’s good, that protects my arsenal.”