Phillies’ Zack Wheeler takes a big step in his return from surgery
After two strong simulated innings, Wheels sounded encouraged by his progress and optimistic about his future.
CLEARWATER, Fla. — Bryce Harper, Aaron Nola, Jhoan Duran, José Alvarado, and Cristopher Sánchez could have been having lunch or warming up for the Phillies’ Grapefruit League finale on Monday. Instead, less than hour before the 12:05 p.m. game, they walked 300 yards to the minor-league facility to watch two guys throw about 40 meaningless pitches.
One guy threw 29 of them — and, on second thought, they weren’t at all meaningless. In fact, they might have been the most important 29 pitches thrown by any Phillie at spring training.
In his most aggressive session on his journey back from thoracic outlet syndrome, Zack Wheeler faced eight minor-league batters in two innings in a semi-simulated game at the minor-league facility. Reliever Orion Kerkering, coming back from a hamstring injury, pitched the half-inning in between, but he was the sideshow. Wheeler was the main attraction.
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Wheeler allowed what might have been two hits, except there were no outfielders, only infielders. Of the six outs, four came by strikeout, one on an exceptionally nasty off-speed pitch that appeared to be a curveball.
Right? Maybe. Wheeler couldn’t remember.
“I’m the worst at that,” Wheeler said. “Other guys can tell you what they did three years ago.”
What Wheeler did one year ago was make his third All-Star team on his way to another top-10 finish in Cy Young Award voting — honors achieved despite starting just 24 games. Wheeler’s season ended in the middle of August, when doctors discovered a blood clot near his shoulder, diagnosed him with thoracic outlet syndrome, and eventually removed a rib. He still went 10-5 with a 2.71 ERA and 195 strikeouts in 149⅔ innings, a career-high strikeout-per-nine rate of 11.7.
Recovery from the condition and the surgery typically requires at least nine months, but Wheeler, now six months removed from surgery, appears to be on schedule to return in as few as seven months. He’s still about 10 pounds short of his fighting weight, which is 205, but he has pitched as light as 185 in the past.
Wheeler, 35, said he threw his entire six-pitch arsenal and, while no numbers were immediately available, he appeared to be throwing at least as hard as he did in his last session. He threw 20 pitches in live batting practice Wednesday and hit 93 mph, about 3 mph slower than his normal four-seamer average.
As the second inning progressed, he appeared to leave 93 mph behind.
“I was trying to throw harder in that second inning,” Wheeler said.
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The obvious next step would be for Wheeler to pitch in an actual minor-league game, in which, for instance, he likely would be required to throw from the stretch, which he did not do Monday. Wheeler said he did not know when he will next take the mound.
He did say that he would be in Philadelphia for opening-day ceremonies on Thursday, so his future likely will involve traveling south at least a couple of times to avoid pitching in the cold of Philadelphia and triple-A Lehigh Valley. The IronPigs also play in Durham, N.C., next week, so that is an option for Wheeler and Kerkering.
Kerkering faced four batters and struck out the last two. His first strikeout appeared to come on a vicious split-fingered fastball, which he added to his repertoire of fastball and sweeper.
Wheeler and Kerkering will open the season on the injured list, though Kerkering is expected to exit it much sooner than Wheeler. If things continue to progress without setbacks, he projects to return to the Phillies before the end of April.
Neither he nor the Phillies will reveal what their exact schedule is, though Wheeler said that Monday’s session aligns with their best-case schedule.
“We mapped it out, and this was part of the plan,” Wheeler said. “It’s just good to check that box as we move through camp. So, successful spring.”