Jesus Luzardo Injury Update, Latest News on Phillies Star's Status Ahead of MLB Playoffs

The Philadelphia Phillies reportedly received quite the blow as they battle for playoff positioning down the stretch of the season.

Matt Gelb of The Athletic reported Tuesday the National League East team is placing Jesús Luzardo on the injured list with a shoulder issue.

"He was not feeling as well as they expected today," Gelb added. "The rest is very much unsure. They are not ruling him out for a potential postseason start, Don Mattingly said."

This comes after Luzardo was scratched from Saturday's start against the Atlanta Braves, although ESPN noted an MRI did not show any serious issues.

"As we worked through it the last couple of days, we thought he's gonna be able to make the start," Mattingly said of the scratched start. "He's still not quite there. We feel like it's safer to be careful with him. We don't want this to linger, so it's one of those things, we want to try to take care of it and just go from there."

Gelb reported the Phillies will recall Grant Holman for Tuesday's game against the Washington Nationals and will likely need a bullpen game in the coming days to cover for Luzardo's absence.

The timing is certainly not ideal for Philadelphia, which has 12 games remaining in the regular season and is in a tenuous position in the playoff picture. It is 4.5 games behind the Braves in the division race and part of a four-team race for three spots in the wild-card battle.

The Chicago Cubs are a half-game ahead of the Phillies, while Philadelphia is one game ahead of the San Diego Padres and 3.5 games ahead of the Arizona Diamondbacks. The team that finishes the highest of those four squads will get the opportunity to host the Wild Card Series to start the playoffs.

While the Phillies have a formidable one-two punch atop their rotation in Cristopher Sánchez and Aaron Nola, pitching depth beyond them is a concern with Luzardo sidelined.

The southpaw made his first career All-Star Game this season and has a 2.87 ERA, 1.08 WHIP and 221 strikeouts in 178.2 innings. The trio of Sánchez, Nola and Luzardo also figured to take the ball in each game of a best-of-three Wild Card Series, so the team will have to adjust its approach if needed if the latter does not return by the start of the playoffs.

For now, Philadelphia will look to tread water and get closer to a postseason spot without one of its most important pitchers.