Luzardo was among the pitchers general manager David Forst named Friday as candidates for the Oakland rotation this season, Chris Haft of MLB.com reports. "We're not going to rule [Luzardo making the Opening Day rotation] out. I think we've said that for a little while," Forst said. "If he's good enough, there's no reason not to have him in the rotation. It's obviously a big leap for someone who has thrown only a few innings at Triple-A. But he's going to get a nice, long look in spring training -- as long a look as you can get in 32 days, or however long we're down there."
Beyond free-agent signings Mike Fiers and Marco Estrada, Oakland appears to have no other surefire rotation members from a group that includes Luzardo, Daniel Mengden, Paul Blackburn, Chris Bassitt, Aaron Brooks and Frankie Montas. While Haft notes that Forst rattled off five of those names before mentioning Luzardo, the 21-year-old lefty unquestionably has the highest fantasy upside of the lot. Across stops at three minor-league levels in 2018, Luzardo rode his big fastball to a 2.88 ERA and 129 strikeouts over 109.1 frames. Now almost three years removed from March 2016 Tommy John surgery, Luzardo could push for over 150 innings, with a decent chunk -- if not all -- likely to come at Oakland if the organization determines he's sufficiently battle tested in the high minors.