Broken Wheels
Zack Wheeler is out for the Phillies' 2025 stretch run after the ace had a procedure to remove a blood clot and is scheduled for surgery to address thoracic outlet syndrome
(Zack Wheeler (l.) with Hall of Fame pitcher Steve Carlton in 2022 at Citizens Bank Park, the year the Phillies went to the World Series and lost to the Astros).
The Major League Baseball promotional video that teased the 2017 season included some of the league’s biggest stars then, including the fearsome Flushing foursome – Jacob deGrom, Matt Harvey, Noah Syndergaard and Long Island-bred lefty, Steven Matz.
“… And the boys from Queens are back together… and hungry,” says the narrator in the clip, while the four Mets aces sit at a dinner table eating an Italian meal, “Sopranos”-style.
Wait, no Zack Wheeler? Wheeler, despite being a part of the ’17 Mets starting rotation, was not one of the dinner guests. That seemed to be the case for much of Wheeler’s Mets’ career — an afterthought — especially that spring training, when he was overshadowed by the other four pitching studs.
But once the ’17 regular season began, Syndergaard was injured early and only ended up with seven starts; Matz and Harvey struggled and recorded losing records; Robert Gsellman - what? - emerged as a front-of-the-rotation starter; and only deGrom performed to ace-caliber expectations, with a team best 15 wins (against 10 losses), 239 strikeouts and a whopping 201.1 innings pitched.
Wheeler, meanwhile, made 10 more starts than Syndergaard, but finished with a below .500 record (3-7), as the Mets missed the postseason for the first time in two years.
Wheeler’s Flushing tenure would eventually bloom over the 2018 and 2019 seasons, when he posted winning records (12-7, 11-8). When he became a free agent after the 2019 season, however, it was the Phillies who wooed Wheeler south on I-95 – to the tune of $118 million for five years.
Since he arrived in Philly, Wheeler has been a bonafide ace, but now the team will be without him as it makes the 2025 playoff push and vies for a second straight National League East title. The Phillies announced that the 35-year-old Wheeler underwent a procedure to remove a blood clot in his “right upper extremity” August 18, and a follow-up press release confirmed what was expected: season-ending surgery.
At the time he went on the IL, Wheeler was 10-5 with a 2.71 ERA, 195 strikeouts and 149.2 innings pitched. If Phillies fans immediately waved the white flag on 2025 after the Wheeler news, well, former Mets general manager and current SNY studio analyst Jim Duquette says it isn’t all doom and gloom, even though losing Wheeler for any amount of time is a gut punch.
“If you sit there and think about it objectively, (Wheeler’s absence) is not going to impact their ability to get to the postseason. I think it’s almost certain they’re getting to the (playoffs), and I think even more certain they’re going to win the division,” said Duquette in a recent interview. “There are still seven games against the Mets, and some things have to go right.
“But this is more, the impact in October. And that’s the thing that is hard to measure.”
No doubt the Phillies' front office and manager Rob Thomson are still reeling from the loss of their ace, but as Duquette pointed out, the starting rotation behind Wheeler ain’t too shabby.
“I think they were going to go with a sixth starter when (Aaron) Nola came back (from the IL),” said Duquette. “I think the (front office) mentality is, ‘We have enough pitching to pick up the slack.’ Very few teams do. That’s a veteran crew. If Nola pitches the way he’s capable of, they still have four really good starters (Nola, and lefties Cristopher Sanchez, Ranger Suarez and Jesus Luzardo). It’s just not Wheeler, unfortunately.”
Sanchez, the Dominican left-hander (11-4, 2.46 ERA), could contend for a Cy Young, while Suarez allowed three runs or less during his 12 starts over a two-month stretch (May 10-July 11), and in four of those games, he gave up no runs. Nola got tattooed in his return from the IL, giving up six runs against the terrible Nationals over 2.1 innings.
The Phillies’ lineup is loaded with veterans – including two-time National League MVP Bryce Harper and home run hitting machine Kyle Schwarber – while the bullpen got a huge boost with trade deadline acquisition Jhoan Duran.
The Phillies’ bullpen actually might be the team’s lone weakness, even with Duran aboard (although he registered his first blown save Friday night at home against the Nationals). Jose Alvarado, one of the team’s better relievers, just returned from an 80-game drug suspension, but he’s ineligible for the postseason.
(Zack Wheeler (l.) with his older brother Jacob in 2018 at a Manhattan event to promote Jacob’s artwork. At the time, Zack pitched for the Mets)
“That would be my biggest concern with them,” said Duquette, who is also an analyst with MLB Network Radio on SiriusXM. “The bridge leading up to Duran – Alvarado can’t pitch for them in the postseason. That hurts. It’s always a consistency thing with (Jordan) Romano, who’s been up and down, and terrible for most of the year. (David) Robertson has pitched well, but he’s 40. (Orion) Kerkering has two blown saves recently (Aug. 19 vs. Seattle; Aug. 14 vs. Washington). So, there are some question marks in the bullpen, for sure.”
As for Wheeler, Duquette, like others who had speculated on his return, was “skeptical” the right-hander could pitch again this season. Duquette recalled how right-hander David Cone was diagnosed with an aneurysm in May of 1996 when Cone pitched for the Yankees. After surgery to remove the aneurysm, Cone was back on the mound less than four months later, and he helped the Yankees win the World Series that October.
“Cone missed four months, and then came back and pitched well,” said Duquette. “But that injury happened (in the early part of the regular season). Even if you could say, ‘There’s been an upgrade in modern medicine for this type of surgery,’ there are so many factors that it’s hard to pinpoint how Wheeler’s going to respond to all that. And it’s unlikely he’d pitch like he has been now – going seven innings each start.”
For now, the Phillies forge ahead, Wheeler-less, and try to get the brass ring. They came close in 2022, losing to Houston in six games. The last two years, however, the team has gone backward, losing the NLCS in 2023 and the NLDS last year.
“There are a lot of different ways to win a postseason game,” said Duquette. “Look at last year, when the Dodgers had three starters – two of which (Jack Flaherty and Walker Buehler) were struggling as they were getting weeks away from the playoffs. They had several bullpen games in the postseason, and then they won the thing. There are creative ways to do it.”