Jesús Luzardo loved his season in Philadelphia so much that he didn’t want to leave.

Now he can set down roots.

Luzardo and the Phillies finalized a five-year, $135 million contract extension that will keep him in red and white pinstripes through at least the 2031 season on Tuesday. The deal kicks in for the 2027 season and has a club option for 2032.

“I like the city of Philadelphia,” Luzardo said at a press conference from the team’s spring training complex in Clearwater, Fla. “The fans, the stadium, the energy going to the ballpark every day and the expectation to win. I think that combination of all those things was the perfect combination for me. It’s a match made in heaven.”

The Phillies acquired southpaw ahead of the 2025 season in a trade with Miami and he instantly solidified the rotation — he struck out 11 in his frat start against Washington — as the Phillies won their second straight NL East championship.

That set the tone for a season in which Luzardo went 15-7 with a 3.92 ERA in 183 2/3 innings and finished second in the NL with 212 strikeouts.

He took up an even larger role as the team’s No. 2 starter after Zack Wheeler’s season was cut short by a blood clot that required Thoracic Outlet surgery.

“It starts with the person,” President of Baseball Operations Dave Dombrowski said in discussing the reasons for the extension. “The hard work, the dedication, the drive to be the best. What he does out on the mound as far as the game is concerned and giving you every bit of effort but then you talk about the talent and combine that with one of the best arms from the left-hand side.”

Luzardo was a third-round pick of the Nationals in 2016 and made his big league debut with the Athletics in 2019. He was traded to the Marlins at the deadline in 2021 and spent the next three seasons with the club — he started Game 1 of the 2023 NL Wild-Card series against the Phillies — before Dombrowski acquired him for a pair of prospects last offseason.

Luzardo was coming off a back injury that limited him to 66 2/3 innings in 2024 but proved durable and reliable in finishing seventh in NL Cy Young voting.

The 28-year-old also made two appearances in the NLDS — a start in Game 2 and relief appearance in Game 4 — in which he limited the powerful Dodgers lineup to three runs (two earned) over 7 2/3 innings.

“I was looking forward to getting into this organization. I knew it was a winning organization with high expectations and I wanted to meet those expectations and live up to the standards they have here,” Luzardo said. “I was trying to put my best foot forward every day and see what I can do. Thankfully, as the year went on, the expectation kept getting higher and higher for myself and the team.”

By valuing starting pitching, the Phillies have assembled one of baseball’s best rotations.

Cristopher Sánchez, second in the Cy Young, has a $22.5 million, four-year contract through the 2028 season, Wheeler a $126 million deal through 2027 and Aaron Nola a $172 million, seven-year agreement through 2030. Rookie Andrew Painter is expected to earn the fifth-starter spot in the rotation, with veteran Taijuan Walker as a swing man.

“It’s a good feeling to have that,” Dombrowski said. “Having some of the best pitchers in baseball — Zack is coming along great — you are talking about three guys who finished top 10 in the league in Cy Young award voting last year. One of the best young starters in Andrew Painter coming, we know Aaron Nola is going to bounce back and Taijuan Walker has had a nice solid career. It gives you a lot of comfort when you can go forward with those types of individuals.”

The Phillies are all-in on Luzardo.

“I always want to be the best,” Luzardo said. “For me, for this organization, for everyone involved the guys in the clubhouse, every five days I want to go out and be as great as I can and give us a chance to win. I’ll tell you throughout these next five, six years the only thing I expect to is be great every time out.”