{"id":599088,"date":"2026-04-22T06:34:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-22T06:34:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/599088\/"},"modified":"2026-04-22T06:34:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T06:34:08","slug":"phillies-to-activate-zack-wheeler-on-saturday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/599088\/","title":{"rendered":"Phillies To Activate Zack Wheeler On Saturday"},"content":{"rendered":"

Zack Wheeler<\/a> will start for the Phillies against the Braves on Saturday night, manager Rob Thomson told reporters (link via Charlotte Varnes of The Athletic<\/a>). It\u2019ll be his season debut after last year\u2019s thoracic outlet surgery.<\/p>\n

Wheeler completed his fifth minor league rehab start on Sunday. He threw four innings and 77 pitches. Wheeler had gotten through 5 2\/3 frames over 72 pitches in his previous outing. He should be able to work 80+ offerings in his season debut as long as he\u2019s pitching well. Thomson suggested the Phils would cap him around 90 pitches and six innings in any case.<\/p>\n

The Phillies have yet to name their starter for tomorrow\u2019s game against the Cubs, though it\u2019s expected to be an opener in front of\u00a0Taijuan Walker<\/a>. They\u2019ll turn to\u00a0Cristopher S\u00e1nchez<\/a> on Thursday. Andrew Painter<\/a> will go in Friday\u2019s opener in Atlanta, with\u00a0Aaron Nola<\/a> getting the nod on Sunday. That\u2019d give Jes\u00fas Luzardo<\/a> six days of rest before next Tuesday\u2019s series opener against the Giants.<\/p>\n

Thomson declined to announce Philadelphia\u2019s long-term pitching plans yet. One would imagine Walker will move into a long relief role after tomorrow\u2019s scheduled bulk appearance. The veteran righty has had a miserable start to the season. Walker has yet to make it beyond five innings in any of his first four starts. He has given up six home runs over his past three appearances.<\/p>\n

This is the final season of Walker\u2019s four-year, $72MM free agent deal. If the Philadelphia bullpen were at full strength, they might have had a difficult call in whether to carve out a relief role to keep him on the roster. Recent injuries to\u00a0Jhoan Duran<\/a>,\u00a0Jonathan\u00a0Bowlan<\/a> and\u00a0Zach Pop<\/a> probably ensure that Walker will hold a roster spot. The Phils can option any of Kyle Backhus<\/a>,\u00a0Chase Shugart<\/a> or\u00a0Alan Rangel<\/a> once Wheeler returns.<\/p>\n

Walker\u2019s struggles have been just one aspect of a brutal start for the Philly rotation. That was expected to be a strength, but only S\u00e1nchez has gotten out to a great start to the season. Luzardo has been frustratingly inconsistent. Nola has struggled with the home run ball for a few years and has allowed just over five earned runs per nine innings. Painter has been their second-best starter on a rate basis, though that\u2019s at least partially because the Phillies have mostly shielded him from facing a lineup three times in a game.<\/p>\n

Philadelphia\u2019s rotation ranked 27th in MLB with a 5.48 earned run average entering play tonight. That\u2019ll improve slightly after Luzardo managed 4 2\/3 frames of one-run ball, but he walked four batters and threw 100 pitches in an inefficient showing. The Phils lost to the Cubs by a 7-4 score, dropping them to 8-15 on the year. Although it has been overshadowed a bit by the Mets\u2019 horrendous start, this has been a rough couple weeks for the two-time defending NL East champions.<\/p>\n

They\u2019ll hope for Wheeler\u2019s activation to provide a spark. His post-injury form remains to be seen. The three-time All-Star was one of the top 5-10 pitchers in MLB before the injury. However, his velocity has been down three miles per hour during his Triple-A rehab work. He\u2019s sitting around 93 mph after averaging 96 last year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Zack Wheeler will start for the Phillies against the Braves on Saturday night, manager Rob Thomson told reporters…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":599089,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[99,28637,61187],"class_list":{"0":"post-599088","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-sports","9":"tag-taijuan-walker","10":"tag-zack-wheeler"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/599088","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=599088"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/599088\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/599089"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=599088"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=599088"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=599088"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}