Phillies’ Zack Wheeler unlikely to be ready for opening day
That leaves an opening for top pitching prospect Andrew Painter, who looks to be “in really good shape," according to Dave Dombrowski.
It’s unlikely that Zack Wheeler will be ready for opening day, but he won’t be “too far behind that,” Phillies manager Rob Thomson said on Monday.
It was never a given that Wheeler would be back in the rotation for the start of the 2026 Phillies season. After being diagnosed with a blood clot in his upper right arm, Wheeler underwent venous thoracic outlet decompression surgery on Sept. 23, and the general timeline for return is six to eight months.
Wheeler, 35, has not yet thrown off a mound and has continued to throw at a distance of 90 feet. He last threw on Saturday, and Thomson said the reports were “very good.”
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“We’re still plugging along,” Thomson said, “and it all depends on his strength and that type of thing, but all that being said, he’s doing well.”
With Wheeler doubtful to be in the rotation to start the season, that leaves an opening for Andrew Painter. The 22-year-old prospect was expected to make his major league debut last year, but he struggled with commanding his pitches in his first season back from Tommy John surgery and the call-up never materialized. Painter finished 2025 with a 5.26 ERA in 118 innings across single-A Clearwater and triple-A Lehigh Valley.
Dave Dombrowski said he saw Painter for the first time this year on Monday, and he looked “in really good shape.”
“He had stuff last year. He still threw hard last year. I’m looking for him to command his pitches better,” said Dombrowski, the team’s president of baseball operations. “ … I’ve talked to our people that have been with him and had a chance to watch him. He’s gone back to long toss, which he hadn’t always done in the past. He’s got his arm angle up a tick more, which they think will help him back to where he was before.”
Beyond Painter, the Phillies have thin rotation depth in the minor leagues, which could be an issue in the event of an injury to the staff. Three projected members of the rotation — Cristopher Sánchez (Dominican Republic), Aaron Nola (Italy), and Taijuan Walker (Mexico) — are also set to participate in the World Baseball Classic in March.
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Dombrowski said the Phillies front office will continue to look for starting pitching depth as the spring begins.
“I do think that this is going to be a spring where you continue to have more trade conversations than you normally do during spring training,” Dombrowski said. “Just because of the late developing signing of players, which puts a focus on movement for other players when somebody signs.
“But when our scouts go out there, that’ll be one of our focuses. And we may develop that internally, too; there’s some guys that we do like. But that’ll be a focus of ours, is starting pitching depth.”