Zack Wheeler is ‘a click off,’ but the Phillies don’t think big changes are needed

SEATTLE — Despite how it looked — or how Zack Wheeler sounded — after his latest rough start, the Phillies don’t believe their ace is far away from getting back on track.

“He’s a click off, but I don’t think it’s big adjustments,” pitching coach Caleb Cotham said Wednesday before the Phillies wrapped up a series here against the Mariners. “It’s small things.”

The Phillies ruled out pitch-tipping, a theory floated by Wheeler after he allowed a season-high eight runs on nine hits, including four homers, and five walks Monday night to leave his ERA at 8.51 over his last six starts.

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Instead, after reviewing recent video and comparing it with previous seasons dating to 2021 when Wheeler threw from a higher arm slot, Cotham identified “some things in the delivery that [opponents] are kind of attacking.”

“I think it’s just kind of getting back to the basics that we know is like headquarters for him,” Cotham said. “Just making sure we’re getting into the lift and out of the lift and the postures are in a spot where he can be freed up to let the ball rip.”

Earlier this month, Wheeler drew scrutiny from the Blue Jays for the placement of his right foot. He tends to keep his foot on the farthest edge of the rubber as he goes through his delivery. Toronto contended that he was disengaging from the rubber.

Wheeler said then that the Phillies were contacted by MLB a few weeks earlier after a camera angle from a nationally televised game gave rise to questions about whether he was on the rubber. The Phillies provided camera angles to show that he was.

“I would defend that until I’m blue in the face,” Cotham said. “It wasn’t really for me a thought. He wants to be on the rubber. He’s on the rubber.”

Regardless, Cotham said Wheeler is “pitching from the same spot he’s always pitched at.”

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And upon reviewing video from Monday night, Cotham said Wheeler’s command wasn’t as erratic as it looked. Despite the five walks, he actually threw 61% strikes, not far off his 63% season average.

“It was a pitch here and there that he normally hits, that he’s hit for a long time, and he didn’t hit that and they put good at-bats and didn’t miss it,” Cotham said. “It’s just a click off enough that one pitch is in the zone when he wants to be out of the zone, one pitch is expanded when he wants to throw a strike, and you lose the count.”

“So, it might be a little delivery and a little maybe [pitch] mix and targeting and where we’re trying to throw pitches. But I think it’s just a sum of a couple of small things for him.”

It hasn’t stopped him from having the best month of his Phillies career, but Bryce Harper continues to manage a “tendinitis-type scenario” in his left knee, according to interim manager Don Mattingly.

“Yeah, he’s going to be dealing with it,” Mattingly said. “Any kind of tendinitis-type scenario, every once in a while you take a misstep, you feel a little swelling and soreness.”

In those cases, Mattingly said the Phillies will continue to look for opportunities to use Harper as a designated hitter. But he has started 13 of the last 14 games in right field, a sign that his knee isn’t flaring up.

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Two weeks into a rehab assignment in triple A, backup catcher Rafael Marchán (knee) was 6-for-24 with five walks and five strikeouts through seven games. It’s likely he will rejoin the Phillies after rosters expand to 28 players on Tuesday. … Lefty reliever Tanner Banks (forearm) began a rehab assignment in triple A. … After a day off in Southern California, the Phillies will open a three-game series against the Angels. Andrew Painter (3-6, 6.04 ERA) is scheduled to start Friday night against lefty Reid Detmers (4-8, 3.62).

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Tony Gwynn Jr. is a former major league outfielder and son of late Hall of Famer Tony Gwynn. Over the last two years, he got to know new Phillies second baseman Luis Arraez, whose contact skills at the plate often draw comparisons to Gwynn. Tony Jr. joined Phillies Extra to discuss his father, Arraez, and the bonds that connect them. Watch here.

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