{"id":470039,"date":"2026-02-10T06:29:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-10T06:29:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/470039\/"},"modified":"2026-02-10T06:29:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-10T06:29:07","slug":"zack-wheeler-likely-to-begin-season-on-injured-list","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/470039\/","title":{"rendered":"Zack Wheeler Likely To Begin Season On Injured List"},"content":{"rendered":"

Zack Wheeler<\/a> is maybe the biggest wild card as the Phillies try to claim a third straight NL East title. The ace is working back from the thoracic outlet surgery that ended his 2025 season. The procedure came with a six to eight month recovery timeline from the end of September, calling his availability for the start of \u201926 into question.<\/p>\n

As camp gets underway, manager Rob Thomson provided a vague timetable for Wheeler\u2019s return. \u201cI don\u2019t think he\u2019ll be ready for Opening Day but it\u2019s not going to be too far beyond that,\u201d Thomson told reporters (link via Paul Casella of MLB.com<\/a>). The 35-year-old righty is throwing from flat ground and \u201cdoing well\u201d in the manager\u2019s words, yet the Phils are obviously going to be cautious with the three-time All-Star. He has not progressed to mound work.<\/p>\n

Between Wheeler\u2019s injury and the free agent departure of\u00a0Ranger Su\u00e1rez<\/a>, it\u2019s a thinner starting staff than usual. President of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski told reporters (including Scott Lauber of The Philadelphia Inquirer<\/a>) they\u2019ll look to deepen that group throughout the spring. \u201cWhen our scouts go out there, that\u2019ll be one of our focuses. And we may develop that internally, too; there\u2019s some guys that we do like. But that\u2019ll be a focus of ours, is starting pitching depth,\u201d Dombrowski said.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s not to say the Phillies are likely to add Zac Gallen<\/a>, Lucas Giolito<\/a>\u00a0or\u00a0Chris Bassitt<\/a>. It\u2019s generally expected that their three-year deal to bring back J.T. Realmuto<\/a> was the final big move of an offseason built around re-signing\u00a0Kyle Schwarber<\/a> that also saw them sign right fielder Adolis Garc\u00eda<\/a> and reliever Brad Keller<\/a>.<\/p>\n

There are some potential swing options available in free agency (e.g. Jose Quintana<\/a>,\u00a0Aaron Civale<\/a>), though Dombrowski suggested there might be opportunities on the trade front. He noted that the relatively slow-moving free agent market for starting pitching could make some fringe arms on those signing teams available via trade \u2014 though that could certainly be counteracted as teams start losing pitchers to injury, as happens every year during Spring Training. A trade would also provide the Phillies with some extra roster flexibility if they can add someone who still has options remaining. Most free agents have the five-plus years of service time that gives them the right to refuse a minor league assignment.<\/p>\n

Assuming Wheeler begins the season on the injured list, Cy Young runner-up Cristopher S\u00e1nchez<\/a> should get his first Opening Day start. He\u2019ll be followed in the rotation by\u00a0Jes\u00fas Luzardo<\/a> and\u00a0Aaron Nola<\/a>. Taijuan Walker<\/a> worked in a swing role last year but seems more or less assured of a season-opening rotation spot.<\/p>\n

That\u2019d leave the fifth spot available in a camp battle. Top prospect\u00a0Andrew Painter<\/a> has a legitimate chance to win the job. Philly needed to add him to the 40-man roster this offseason because he\u2019d reached Rule 5 eligibility. His stock has dipped a little from the time that he was widely viewed as the #1 pitching prospect in the sport. An elbow injury that required Tommy John surgery cost him the 2023-24 seasons.<\/p>\n

Painter\u2019s numbers at Triple-A Lehigh Valley last year weren\u2019t as impressive. He surrendered a 5.40 ERA with a good but not elite 23.4% strikeout rate over 22 starts. He proved more susceptible to the home run than the Phillies would have liked, though his raw stuff remained very impressive. Painter averaged nearly 97 mph on his four-seam fastball while mixing in three breaking pitches (cutter, slider, curveball) and a changeup. He got whiffs on a strong 13% of his offerings. He remains one of the better pitching prospects in MLB and one of Philly\u2019s top three minor league talents alongside shortstop Aidan Miller<\/a> and outfielder\u00a0Justin Crawford<\/a>.<\/p>\n

If Painter scuffles during Spring Training, the Phils can option him back to Lehigh Valley. They\u2019re currently without many real alternatives to hold the fort until Wheeler\u2019s season debut, however. Their other starters on the 40-man roster (e.g. Jean Cabrera<\/a>,\u00a0Yoniel Curet<\/a>,\u00a0Alan Rangel<\/a>) also have little to no MLB experience. Non-roster invitees\u00a0Tucker Davidson<\/a> and\u00a0Bryse Wilson<\/a> don\u2019t inspire a ton of confidence. Keller has starting experience but was signed to be a high-leverage reliever.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s understandable the Phillies want to leave the door open for Painter to win the job, especially if they anticipate Wheeler coming back within the first few weeks of the regular season. At the same time, even one more injury would leave the rotation looking precarious. Nola is coming off a bad season and Walker\u2019s tenure in Philly has been a mixed bag. Wheeler is no guarantee to look the same as he did before the surgery. Adding some kind of swing depth is a must.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Zack Wheeler is maybe the biggest wild card as the Phillies try to claim a third straight NL…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":470040,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[82340,64,63,591,85,50577],"class_list":{"0":"post-470039","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-andrew-painter","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-mlb","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-zack-wheeler"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/470039","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=470039"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/470039\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/470040"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=470039"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=470039"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=470039"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}