The Zack Wheeler conversation: Why he expected to thrive after surgery, and how much longer he wants to play
Wheeler is pitching as well as ever, one year removed from a career-threatening condition. With one year left on his contract, his future with the Phillies beyond 2027 is uncertain.
NEW YORK — Zack Wheeler threw “about three strikes in the bullpen,” by his best recollection. But that wasn’t why he slowed his walk across the outfield before a May 12 start in Boston.
“Man,” he exhaled to catcher/confidant J.T. Realmuto, “this is cool.”
Wheeler doesn’t usually do sentimental. Not publicly, at least. He’s 36, with gray wisps in his beard befitting a father of four small children. He’s still the Phillies’ ace, too, and baseball’s highest-paid pitcher (non-Shohei Ohtani division) at $42 million per year.
And he has seen it all in 14 years in the majors.
Wheeler would rather not waste time, then, on things that don’t matter or aren’t within his control. No-nonsense to his core (save for the occasional cameo on his wife’s TikToks), you have a better chance of getting the password to his email than getting him to go deep on overcoming venous thoracic outlet syndrome, the scary-sounding, career-threatening condition that befell him 13 months ago.
So, why the pause for reflection four months ago on the grass in Fenway Park? It sure seemed like a break from his typical tunnel vision to appreciate something that was nearly taken away.
“Part of that’s me probably winding down my career,” Wheeler said the other day after running sprints in the outfield here. “I’ve only got one more year on this contract. I don’t know if I’m going to play after that. But just going into those stadiums that maybe I won’t go back to — Anaheim, Detroit, Boston — we’re not going to play those teams there next year. So, kind of just soaking that in and enjoying it a little bit more this year than most years.”
Wait, let’s pause. When Wheeler signed an extension in March 2024, he initially wanted only a two-year deal. The Phillies talked him into three, for a total of $126 million. And at a news conference in Clearwater, Fla., he hinted it might be his last contract.
“I don’t want to play until I’m ‘old, old,’” he said then.
OK, sure. But did anyone really believe him? Wheeler was at the peak of his powers, healthier and better in the first half of his 30s with the Phillies than in his late 20s with the Mets. Besides, 40 is the new 30 in pro sports.
And here’s Wheeler now, pitching as well as ever — 2.99 ERA and 177 strikeouts in 150⅓ innings — even after a procedure last Sept. 23 in which surgeons removed his top rib to relieve a compressed vein.
Surely, he won’t walk away after only one more season. Will he?
“Honestly, I mean, it’s just still up in the air,” Wheeler said. “I think a lot of things have to kind of play out for me just to be able to see.”
» READ MORE: From April: What is Zack Wheeler facing in his return from surgery? We asked two pitchers who have done it.
Presumably, that includes the outcome of another Red October.
The Phillies are closing in on a fifth consecutive playoff appearance, and their chances of making a deep run hinge on the starters, notably Wheeler, Cristopher Sánchez, and Jesús Luzardo, if he’s able to overcome an inflamed left shoulder. Aaron Nola, Wheeler’s close friend and longtime running mate atop the rotation, can help, too, if he continues his second-half revival.
But there’s also baseball’s looming labor fight over a salary cap. With the collective bargaining agreement set to expire Dec. 1, the owners almost certainly will lock out the players.
What if an agreement isn’t reached in time for a 162-game season in 2027? How would that affect Wheeler’s plans?
“I don’t know,” he said, smiling. “I think it’s just going to be [a decision] at that point in time, whether it’s this or that, honestly.”
Fair enough. Say this, though: A year ago, even some Phillies officials wondered if Wheeler’s retirement, whenever it happens, might not be entirely on his own terms. Wheeler insists he never had a doubt.
‘To be expected’
As Wheeler comes up on one year since his surgery, it was fitting that he pitched this week in Washington, where his injury odyssey began.
Wheeler allowed two runs in five innings on Aug. 15, 2025, in Nationals Park and felt fine after coming out of the game. But when he developed a bubble in his armpit that looked like a lymph node, head athletic trainer Paul Buchheit recommended that they get it checked by the Nationals’ team physicians.
It turned out to be a blood clot.
Wheeler returned to Philadelphia for a venogram, a test to detect blood flow. The conclusion: The clot was caused by a vein that got compressed between the rib cage and collarbone.
» READ MORE: Jesús Luzardo ‘definitely concerned’ as inflamed left shoulder lands him on the injured list
One month after the clot was removed, Wheeler had a second procedure to relieve the vein. Then came the hard part: weeks of physical therapy and rehab, including a strict diet, not easy for an unabashed fast-food and junk-food lover.
It took time for Wheeler to put back the weight. He left spring training at about 195 pounds, roughly 10 pounds less than normal.
And yet, after all that, Wheeler shut out the Nationals on four hits in seven innings Wednesday night in Washington. Among 52 pitchers with a minimum of 150 innings entering the weekend, Wheeler was 14th in ERA and tied for 10th in walks/hits per inning (1.06).
“He’s made it look very easy,” pitching coach Caleb Cotham said of Wheeler’s comeback. “And it’s not.”
If someone had told Wheeler, as he left the hospital last September, that he’d be pitching at this level a year later, what would he have said?
“To be expected,” Wheeler said. “When you have surgery, or anything along those lines, you just have to stay positive and keep a strong mindset, you know? You believe that you’re going to come back and be the same guy, if not better, because you’ve had more time to strengthen and fine-tune everything.
“For me, it was just, come back, hit the ground running, and just be the same guy as I was, if not better.”
It did take time for Wheeler to regain the pre-surgery zip on his fastball. Even now, it isn’t completely back. He averaged 96.5 mph in July 2025, according to Statcast; he’s averaging 95.5 mph so far this month.
But Wheeler leans on his secondary pitches more now. His splitter, in particular, is “as good as it’s ever been,” Cotham said. Wheeler has thrown it 15.7% of the time, according to Statcast, and held opponents to a .182 average and .303 slugging.
If anything, Wheeler said the most unexpected part of the season was the depth of a six-start struggle after the All-Star break in which he posted an 8.51 ERA, bottoming out with an eight-run, five-walk, four-homer dud in Seattle on Aug. 24.
» READ MORE: Can Trea Turner rescue his season despite career-worst stats at the plate? His manager and teammates believe so.
The root of the problem was a glitch in his mechanics. Wheeler dropped his glove, causing him to over-rotate and follow through too far to the third-base side. He fixed the issue and has allowed three runs in his last 26 innings.
“I feel like, since I’ve been [with the Phillies], I haven’t had more than two, maybe three starts in a row where it’s kind of gone bad,” Wheeler said. “I think I probably thought I was going to get out of it a little quicker than I did. And I didn’t. So, maybe I should have checked in a little bit earlier.”
It probably cost him a chance for his elusive Cy Young Award, although Brewers sensation Jacob Misiorowski probably wrapped that up months ago. But there’s little doubt Wheeler will be the Comeback Player of the Year.
‘This is where you want to be’
Eleven days after the removal of his rib, Wheeler was introduced with his teammates before Game 1 of the divisional round against the Dodgers.
It was a helpless feeling.
“Yeah, it was tough,” he said. “Maybe if it was like June or May, I would have been like, ‘All right.’ But being that close to the finish line and the playoffs where, that’s your goal every year is to make the playoffs and see what happens. It was tough.
“But what are you going to do? I’m that type of person where, stuff’s going to happen in your life. Everyday stuff, normal person stuff, baseball-wise stuff, and sometimes you just can’t help. Injuries happen. Car wrecks happen. Stuff happens in life. You just have to learn how to deal with it and figure stuff out.”
» READ MORE: J.T. Realmuto’s extreme success with the ABS system has the Phillies hoping he will challenge more calls
It helped that Wheeler overcame injuries early in his career.
Drafted in the first round (sixth overall) by the Giants in 2009, traded to the Mets in a one-for-one deal for Carlos Beltrán, and hailed as a top prospect, he missed 2½ seasons after Tommy John elbow surgery and multiple setbacks during the recovery.
By comparison, coming back from thoracic outlet syndrome was straightforward.
“That was my first injury where I was missing time at any level, even high school, so I was honestly just nervous that I wouldn’t get back,” Wheeler said. “I was unsure, just hoping for the best. But this far into my career, at the level that I’ve been pitching at, I expect to be there and want to be there.”
A year later, it’s like Wheeler was never gone.
“This time of the season, it’s cool, it’s special,” Wheeler said. “This is where you want to be, and these games really, really matter. It’s fun competing in these types of games, these atmospheres, and getting that close to the finish line. You’ve got to really bear down, and I think everybody knows that.”
Matt Klentak's fingerprints are still on the Phillies' roster six years after he was the team's general manager. These days, Klentak is part of the front office for the Brewers, who recently clinched their fourth consecutive NL Central title. With the Brewers coming to town Tuesday, Klentak joined Phillies Extra to discuss his current and former teams. Watch here.
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