When Aaron Nola threw the first pitch of Saturday’s game against the Texas Rangers, the temperature at Citizens Bank Park was a chilly 45 degrees.
Fans in the stands were bundled up in blankets, and several Phillies wore red balaclavas underneath their baseball caps for the coldest first pitch in Philadelphia since 2019.
For the first eight innings, the Phillies’ bats reflected the weather.
A furious ninth-inning rally spurred some late excitement and forced extras, but the Phillies ultimately fell, 5-4, to the Rangers in the 10th.
“They kept after it,” said manager Rob Thomson. “Two big hits with two strikes. Never gave up.”
The winning run was scored on Phillies closer Jhoan Duran in the 10th inning. A single from Wyatt Langford, a bloop just 67.8 mph off the bat, advanced ghost-running Brandon Nimmo, who then came home on a wild pitch. Andrew McCutchen then singled to drive in an insurance run.
With two runners on in the bottom of the 10th and the opportunity to answer back, Kyle Schwarber challenged the strike call on a cutter from Tyler Alexander that barely caught the bottom outside corner of the zone. The call was confirmed, and when Alexander threw a changeup below the zone for a called third strike to Schwarber, the Phillies had no challenges remaining to attempt to overturn it.
“It’s a game of inches. It’s less than inches,” Brandon Marsh said. “I’m still getting used to it. … It’s kind of nuts seeing just how close those balls are to the zone, missing or barely catching it. I feel like we’re all still trying to get a good gauge for it, and as the season goes on, we’ll figure it out.”
Thomson said he had no issue with Schwarber using the Phillies’ final challenge in that situation.
“Especially with those guys late in the game like that, it could change the at-bat,” Thomson said.
With the Phillies down to their final out in the 10th, Bryce Harper cut into the Texas lead with a broken-bat single that scored the Phillies’ automatic runner, but Alec Bohm popped out to shortstop to end the game.
The Phillies’ J.T. Realmuto hits a fifth-inning single against the Rangers on Saturday.
Texas lefty Jacob Latz stepped in for scheduled starter Jacob DeGrom, who was scratched a few hours before game time with a stiff neck. He held the Phillies without a hit for the first four innings. J.T. Realmuto finally delivered a single off reliever Cole Winn in the fifth, but that was the Phillies’ only hit until the ninth.
“They pitched really well,” Thomson said. “Latz threw well. He attacked, threw strikes. Their entire pitching staff attacked; a lot of first-pitch strikes. They did a nice job keeping us off-balance, but I liked the way we fought at the end.”
The Phillies found themselves down early after Corey Seager ambushed Nola in the first inning with a solo home run on the first pitch he saw. The Rangers tacked on to their lead in the third when Nola hung a curveball to first baseman Jake Burger, who hit a two-run shot to the left field foul pole.
The damage could have been even worse. Nola wriggled out of a jam in the second inning after walking the first two batters. He induced a force out at third followed by a lineout, and then struck out Danny Jansen looking to leave both runners.
“Felt pretty good, body and arm felt good,” Nola said. “I think the command in the second inning got out of whack there, but felt like it came back pretty well. I threw a lot of pitches. They worked the counts pretty good. Obviously, those two pitches that those guys hit for homers were tough.”
In the third inning, Justin Crawford made a jumping catch at the center field wall to rob Langford of extra bases.
Nola allowed five hits, two walks, and struck out seven over five innings. The Phillies used three lefty relievers, Tanner Banks, José Alvarado, and Tim Mayza.
The entire ninth-inning rally came with two outs. Bohm started things off with a line drive single for the Phillies’ second hit of the game. Edmundo Sosa, pinch-hitting for Stott, then won an eight-pitch battle by drawing a walk to bring up García.
The Phillies’ Adolis García prepares to bat in the second inning against the Rangers on Saturday.
García popped up the first pitch he saw, but was given another life when Burger dropped the ball in foul territory. He responded by punching a double to left field.
“It’s a crazy, crazy game,” Marsh said. “The wind was howling today, so I know that wasn’t an easy play for him. So thankfully, it fell, and got Garcia’s first knock and kept the boys rolling.”
Marsh fell behind in the count 1-2, but then connected with a splitter for a game-tying, two-RBI single to force extras.
ALLENTOWN — Zack Wheeler didn’t have to subject himself to this.
In planning out where to pitch in a game for the first time since having a rib removed to relieve a compressed vein 186 days ago, the Phillies ace could have opted for the warmth of Clearwater, Fla., where the A-ball season will begin in a few days.
But Wheeler, whose recovery already is tracking ahead of schedule by several weeks, wanted a bigger test. He took the mound here, then, amid a 46-degree chill Saturday, then threw cold water all over a lineup of triple-A batters.
“It was really my choice,” Wheeler said after holding Toledo, the Tigers’ triple-A club, to two hits and one walk on 38 pitches in three scoreless innings. “I wanted to see more competitive at-bats and more competitive situations. I knew it was going to be cold, but at the end of the day, this is probably where I need to be facing hitters.”
Everyone got what they came for.
Wheeler threw each of his pitches — four-seam fastball, sinker, sweeper, cutter/slider, curveball, and splitter — to a lineup that included outfielder Wenceel Pérez and top Tigers prospects Max Clark and Jace Jung. His fastball sat 92-94 mph, slightly better than in spring training, before dipping in the third inning. His curveball was especially sharp.
Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Zack Wheeler long tosses at spring training in Clearwater, Fla. on Monday, Feb. 23, 2026.
And the IronPigs, the Phillies’ Lehigh Valley-based triple-A affiliate, got to stage “Rehab Ribs Night,” complete with a barbecue buffet in the left-field stands above the bullpen that began an hour before the game and ran through the middle innings for an announced crowd of 6,740.
“It’s a little aggressive,” Wheeler said, smiling. “Made my bone hurt a little bit, and it’s not even there. No, whatever can help these guys out. It’s minor league baseball. They run a bunch of promotions. Whatever makes a little bit of money, I’m here for it, I guess.”
Phillies reliever Orion Kerkering was here, too. He followed Wheeler into the game and threw 10 pitches, including two of his newly minted splitters, in a scoreless fourth inning.
Wheeler and Kerkering returned to Philadelphia after the game but will rejoin the IronPigs next week in Durham, N.C. Kerkering expects to make back-to-back appearances Tuesday and Wednesday before possibly coming off the injured list; Wheeler will start Friday night, then make at least one more minor league start for double-A Reading.
After that? He could join the Phillies’ rotation.
Certainly nothing that happened in his first start for Lehigh Valley suggested otherwise.
“Yeah, it went well, obviously,” Wheeler said. “Felt good. At the end of the day, coming out of it healthy is really all that mattered to me.”
Wheeler produced seven swings-and-misses, four of which came off his curveball. He struck out Pérez on a curveball to open the game and got Trei Cruz to chase a breaking ball in the dirt to end the first inning, probably his best pitch of the start.
But despite the results, Wheeler said he wasn’t necessarily satisfied with the spin on his off-speed pitches.
“Whether it be the curve, sweeper, or even the cutter, they weren’t doing necessarily what I needed them to do,” Wheeler said. “But the curveball, it had good shape on it and it was moving so much that it was effective. It’s something that’ll come with more reps and the higher intent and stuff.”
Jung had the only hard-hit ball against Wheeler, a scalded single to right field that registered 109.5 mph off the bat. Otherwise, Wheeler got mostly soft contract. All three strikeouts came in the first inning.
Wheeler, who lost considerable weight after the surgery, said he’s still about 10 pounds lighter than usual for this time of the season. Maybe it has something to do with why he didn’t feel as comfortable pitching out of the stretch in spring training.
But he was encouraged by his effectiveness out of the stretch. Two of his higher-velocity readings — a 94-mph sinker and a 94.3-mph four-seamer — came out of the stretch to Eduardo Valencia in the first inning.
Wheeler credited a recent mechanical tweak with pitching coach Caleb Cotham in the way he comes set with his front foot.
“Just kind of thinking back over the years, what’s worked for me, we made a little adjustment and today I felt a lot better, more in sync-wise,” Wheeler said. “Sometimes you just need those little reminders along the way even though I’ve been doing it for a while. Sometimes it’s the small stuff that you kind of need to nail down as you build up.”
Phillies pitcher Orion Kerkering, seen here in a simulated game earlier this spring, threw 10 pitches in a scoreless fourth inning on Saturday.
If you blinked, you missed Kerkering.
He was slowed in spring training by a strained right hamstring. He also is introducing the splitter to complement his fastball-sweeper tandem. He spiked one in the dirt and got Cruz to foul off another. It remains a work in progress.
“I think I’m comfortable right now that I can go into a big league game and throw a split,” Kerkering said. “I think tweaking it here, knowing what guys see, kind of judging their swings and trying to reevaluate from there, I think that’s what’s helpful.”
Garrett Stubbs is remaining in the Phillies organization.
The team announced Saturday that the catcher has cleared waivers and has been outrighted to triple-A Lehigh Valley. Stubbs had been designated for assignment on Wednesday.
The Phillies had searched for a trade partner for Stubbs, who also saw time in the outfield and at third base this spring, to potentially find a major league opportunity for him last week. Stubbs, 32, could have elected free agency after clearing waivers, but he accepted the minor league assignment and the Phillies retain some crucial catching depth at triple A.
Phillies manager Rob Thomson said this week that on a personal level, he had hoped Stubbs would find a major league job, but from a Phillies perspective he hoped he would stay in the organization.
“He’s meant so much to this place, the energy that he brings, the type of teammate that he is, and he’s a good player, too,” Thomson said. “Unfortunately, when he was here, he was behind the best catcher in baseball, so he didn’t get a whole lot of playing time, but I think he showed us enough in spring training that he’s a potential super utility guy.”
Stubbs spent most of last season with the IronPigs, where he hit .265 with a .754 OPS in 71 games. He has a career .215 batting average and .603 OPS in 197 games with the Phillies and Houston Astros.
The Phillies opted to keep Rafael Marchán, a 27-year-old switch-hitter, as J.T. Realmuto’s backup for the second consecutive season. During spring training, the Phillies considered keeping Stubbs on the roster as the 26th man, which was why he took reps at other defensive positions than catcher. That spot ultimately went to former Gold Glove utility player Dylan Moore.
Thomson said that the conversation he had with Stubbs informing him that he had not made the team was one of the toughest of his career.
deGrom scratched
Several hours before first pitch on Saturday at a chilly Citizens Bank Park, Texas Rangers starting right-handed pitcher Jacob deGrom was scratched from the game with neck stiffness. Lefty Jacob Latz started in his place.
Thomson opted not to change his batting order after the pitching change, with Bryson Stott and Brandon Marsh both remaining in the lineup against the left-hander rather than drawing out for their right-handed platoon partners Edmundo Sosa and Otto Kemp.
Bryson Stott and Brandon Marsh will remain in the lineup against Texas left-handed pitcher Jacob Latz.
The Phillies are expecting to face a string of left-handed starters this homestand, and Thomson said he did not want Stott or Marsh sitting on the bench for too many days in a row, especially following Friday’s off day.
Extra bases
Zack Wheeler (thoracic outlet decompression surgery) and Orion Kerkering (hamstring strain) both began rehab assignments on Saturday in Lehigh Valley. Wheeler is scheduled to start again Friday in Durham in triple A, and will make another start after that for double-A Reading. Kerkering is next scheduled to pitch a back-to-back on Tuesday and Wednesday in triple A. … Jesús Luzardo is scheduled to start Sunday (1:35 p.m., NBCSP) against Rangers lefty MacKenzie Gore. The Phillies announced Saturday that The Jesús Luzardo Family Foundation has pledged to donate $150 to the Boys’ and Girls’ Clubs of Philadelphia for every strikeout he records this year.
It’s never fashionable to be optimistic about sports in Philadelphia, but at this moment, convention be damned.
It’s been maybe 16 years since all four Philadelphia teams provided as much near-future hope as they provided in a 24-hour period between Wednesday night and Thursday night.
The Sixers won, then the Eagles got great news, then the Phillies won, then the Flyers won. Hurrah.
I understand the reluctance to embrace this wellspring of positivity, and I realize that everything could go south with the next twinge in Joel Embiid‘s knee. But hope springs eternal, and it’s only been a week since spring has sprung, so enjoy the warmth of the weather and the moment.
Nothing happened Friday, so Philly entered the weekend on an unaccustomed high.
On Wednesday, the Sixers beat the Bulls by 20. They scored 157 points, their most in 56 years. They did it without their best player, Tyrese Maxey.
The Flyers beat the Blackhawks and did it without their best, or at least their most important player, Dan Vladař.
Sixers
The Sixers went first, and best. Granted, the Bulls are 14 games under .500, but Paul George, in his return from a 25-game suspension for violating the NBA’s antidrug policy, looked like he’s 25, not 35, for one game at least. Embiid seemed to realize his limitations, in that he didn’t play like a freshman trying to make varsity.
More than anything, though, rookie VJ Edgecombe, the franchise’s most exciting true rookie since Allen Iverson, took his latest step forward. In his last four games — all without Maxey and the first three without Embiid and George — Edgecombe averaged 29.3 points, 8.0 rebounds, and 6.3 assists. He shot 54.8% from the floor and hit 48.4% of his three-pointers.
Considering the abysmal state of the Eastern Conference — Detroit’s Cade Cunningham is injured, the Celtics are flawed, the Knicks are a mirage, and the Cavaliers have James Harden — a fully fortified Sixers lineup can beat almost anyone.
Joel Embiid returned from a 13-game absence in the Sixers’ 20-point win on Wednesday.
Maxey and Kelly Oubre Jr. also returned Saturday.
Sixers coach Nick Nurse was so happy about the previous and imminent returns that he actually smiled after Friday’s practice.
“I’m certainly more optimistic now,” said Nurse, who considers the recent dependency on reserves as building depth that otherwise would not exist. “If you add all those things up — other guys getting valuable growth, and these guys coming back — the sum of all of that together could be pretty good.”
Edgecombe might wear down, but the other four starters should be fresh.
“Definitely got some good rest,” said Maxey, who leads the league at 38.3 minutes per game.
Again, with this assemblage of vanity and fragility, anything can happen. The Sixers are scheduled to visit the surging Hornets on Saturday and the dangerous Heat on Monday, which will provide a better sense of where this team is right now.
Birds
The Eagles struggled last season mainly because of injuries along their offensive line, the best unit during their 13-year run of relevance. Early Friday afternoon, news broke that Pro Bowl center Cam Jurgens was saying the stem cell treatments on his back were already working.
Wheeler, who had a rib removed to address thoracic outlet syndrome, was scheduled to begin a 30-day rehab stint on Saturday — 60 days early.
Last year’s cleanup hitter, Alec Bohm, batting cleanup on opening day, hit a three-run homer, a few weeks after Bryce Harper opened spring training by ripping last year’s cleanup hitters. Bohm did this on the day news broke that he’s suing his own parents for ripping him off.
Andrew Painter, who lost two seasons to elbow surgery then stunk in triple A in 2025, gave up just three runs in four starts in spring training. He’s scheduled to pitch Tuesday against the visiting Nationals.
Flyers
The Flyers are 10-3-1 in their last 14 games. With 82 points they’re unlikely to make the playoffs — they trail the last wild-card spot by five points and have to get past three teams — but they’re playing very good hockey, and with 11 games to play, they could reach the 90-point mark for the first time since 2018. Second-year talent Matvei Michkov has matured. Vladař and veteran defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen are under contract through next season.
And it might be next season before the Flyers really matter.
However, for the rest of the teams, the time is now.
So, you say you want to get to know Andrew Painter better?
Ask him about pickleball.
No, wait, not just about the paddle game, which the Phillies‘ best pitching prospect in 20 years enjoys playing after offseason workouts in South Florida. Get him to explain his “signature move,” Spencer Stockton teases, and well, how do you not take that bait?
“I had the ‘skyball,’” Painter says.
The skyball?
“I just hit it up real high,” Painter continues, leaving out the part about yelling “Skyball” at the top of his lungs. “You can ask [Jesús] Luzardo about it. He never returned it. It wasn’t always in. No one ever figured out how to hit it. It was out of bounds most of the time.”
A trick serve that borders on the absurd and has little chance of actually landing inside the lines? It’s goofy. And quintessentially Painter, scheduled to make the most highly anticipated major-league debut by a Phillies pitcher since Cole Hamels on Tuesday night at home against the Nationals.
He goes by Andrew on the mound but Andy around friends and peers, most of whom describe him with a common adjective: “happy-go-lucky.” That characterization applied even last October, according to Stockton, who didn’t know what to expect when Painter walked back into Cressey Sports Performance in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., where many major-league pitchers train in the offseason.
Phillies fans have heard about Painter for years, since he dominated three levels of the minor leagues in 2022. In 2023, at age 19, he was competing in spring training for a rotation spot — and probably would’ve made the team — when he tore a ligament in his elbow. Rest and rehab didn’t work. He had surgery four months later.
It was 15 months before Painter would pitch in a game. And after he overpowered hitters for six weeks in 2024 in the Arizona Fall League, Phillies president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski, who likened Painter before surgery to Justin Verlander, infamously said the 6-foot-7 righty might be ready for the majors by last “July-ish.”
Phillies pitcher Andrew Painter had a 2.31 ERA in four spring starts.
But Painter struggled in his first exposure to triple A. Like most pitchers who are returning from Tommy John surgery, his fastball command came and went. His arm angle dipped. He made 22 triple-A starts, not missing any, but posted a 5.40 ERA.
“July-ish” turned into, well, nothing. Painter made his final triple-A start on Sept. 17 and went home once the season ended.
Stockton, a former minor-league pitcher with the Reds and now a coach at Cressey, didn’t know what frame of mind his former pickleball partner would be in when he got there.
“I expected him to be maybe a little morose about what had happened,” Stockton said by phone. “I assumed he was probably going to be a little disappointed. But it was kind of the opposite. He was very driven and very realistic about what happened.”
And now, at last, Painter is ready for his close-up.
When he finally takes the mound in Citizens Bank Park, it will be 1,126 days since Painter’s ill-fated spring-training start in 2023 and 980 since his surgery — and 10 days shy of his 23rd birthday. Painter will still be the youngest pitcher to start a game for the Phillies since Ranger Suárez on Aug. 16, 2018.
Maybe some of the prospect shine has dulled since Baseball America named Painter as the best pitcher in the minors in 2022. But the expectations are every bit as grand as ever.
“I’ve always followed him because he’s a friend of the family,” said former Phillies manager Joe Girardi, whose son, Dante, played with Painter in high school. “Andrew went through somewhat of a traumatic experience, where he had to rehab his elbow and deal with a lot. It’s great to see him back. We’re pulling for him.”
Andrew Painter, who pitched in the Under Armour All-America Game in 2019 at Wrigley Field, was a high school star in Florida.
The rise
Painter pitched in high school at Calvary Christian Academy, a powerhouse program in Fort Lauderdale. As a freshman, he was the No. 4 starter in a rotation that included future Mets right-hander Christian Scott.
It wasn’t long before Painter moved up the ranks.
The talent was overwhelming. Girardi recalled attending a tournament at USA Baseball’s headquarters in Cary, N.C., in 2018. Painter faced a team from Mississippi and took a perfect game into the sixth inning.
“I looked at [his wife] Kim, and I said, ‘There’s a first-round pick in waiting,’” Girardi said by phone. “It was 90 mph; four pitches. He could command them all. He was thin. He hadn’t filled out yet. But there was just so much potential there. You could just see that he was going to be special.”
Yet Painter seemed unfazed by it all. He took baseball seriously, especially while he was on the mound. But around friends and teammates, he didn’t take himself seriously.
To wit: Painter, who towered over most teammates, walked into the high-profile National High School Invitational in North Carolina with a Kermit the Frog backpack slung over his shoulders, former Calvary Christian coach Alan Kunkel recalled.
Girardi remembered Painter begging the coaches to let him hit in batting practice. He shagged fly balls in the outfield with such zeal that Girardi would utter, “Please don’t get hurt.”
“You saw Andy’s comedic side early,” Kunkel said by phone. “Andy’s always been pretty low-key and shy and just kind of quirky and very funny, very witty. But he’s never wanted to be the guy that’s drawing all the attention.”
Indeed, Painter will talk forever about college football (he’s a Florida Gators fan) or video games, or his adventures in posting up Max Scherzer in a pickup basketball game after workouts at Cressey. He just isn’t about to post his pitching clips on Instagram.
Never mind that he was well-known in the South Florida high school baseball world. Luzardo, a prospect in the Nationals’ farm system at the time, heard of Painter and recalls watching him in high school. People would inevitably notice him — “It’s not like you can miss him, man, at 6-6, 6-7,” Kunkel said — but not because he drew attention to himself.
“We live in a very vain time where, man, it’s hard to find supercompetitive kids that are willing to just grind and put in the time and not care who gets credit for it,” Kunkel said. “Andy is one of those kids. Andy has never cared about the vanity of the sport, or cared about being posterized or put on social media. He’s just wanted to be a big leaguer and just continue to compete.”
Andrew Painter can appear laid back, but he’s “no more, no less of a competitor than the most competitive kid that I’ve ever coached,” said Alan Kunkel, his former high school coach.
At times, Kunkel said Painter’s laid-back demeanor would create the wrong impression. Pro scouts often asked about his competitiveness. Kunkel was there to offer reassurance.
“He’s no more, no less of a competitor than the most competitive kid that I’ve ever coached,” Kunkel said. “I always said he’s got the heart rate to be a surgeon or to be a big league pitcher. Ninth inning, World Series moment, I don’t know that that would bother him any more than having to perform heart surgery on somebody for people who have the talent and drive to do that.”
The Phillies got several up-close looks at Painter in high school. In addition to area scout Victor Gomez, who attended almost all of Painter’s starts in a 12-month span leading up to the draft, amateur scouting director Brian Barber saw him pitch five times in the summer of 2020 and twice in the spring of ‘21.
Oh, and they had plenty of inside information on Painter. Girardi was managing the Phillies in 2021. Brian Kaplan, whom the Phillies hired after the 2021 season as director of pitching development, coached Painter at Cressey Sports.
The only question, it seemed, was whether Painter would still be on the board when the Phillies made the 13th overall pick.
“I do remember going into that morning [of the draft] thinking, if you had me guess on who we were going to take, it was going to be Andy Painter,” Barber said. “I thought he had a chance to get there, and I knew if he was going to get there, we were going to take him.”
It was the second consecutive year that the Phillies drafted a high school pitcher in the first round. On Aug. 6, 2022, Mick Abel and Painter started back-to-back in an A-ball doubleheader in Lakewood, N.J. Abel allowed three hits and three walks and struck out eight in six scoreless innings. Painter one-upped him across the board: two hits, one walk, 11 strikeouts in seven scoreless innings.
“The guy is just an alien,” Abel said a few days later. “He’s awesome.”
Andrew Painter’s parents and new fiancée will be at Citizens Bank Park on Tuesday for his major league debut against the Nationals.
The return
Imagine being 19 years old and “on a rocket ship to what looked like superstardom,” as Barber put it. Now imagine having it taken away.
How would you cope?
Painter became a grillmaster.
“He kind of ventured off and learned how to cook and enjoyed testing out new types of meats and things of that nature,” Kunkel said. “My man was researching seasonings; he was researching meat types. He’s very proud of his cooking arsenal right now.”
Last season left a sour taste in Painter’s mouth. He got through it healthy, which was the most important part. And there were restrictions. For example, he wasn’t allowed to long-toss from beyond 120 feet.
But upon returning to South Florida, Painter was energized by the idea of a normal offseason. He got together with Stockton and Phillies assistant pitching coach Mark Lowy, who previously worked at Cressey Sports, to dig in on why triple-A hitters slugged .585 against his fastball last season.
Among their discoveries: Painter’s arm slot dipped from its presurgery position, which impacted the shape of his heater. The Phillies identified the issue during the season but were cautious among making changes in a competitive environment.
“He got into some subpar throwing positions, but he was athletic enough to still throw 100,” Stockton said. “When things go wrong and you’ve never struggled, you start to throw things at the wall that maybe aren’t necessarily the best things for you. I think that’s kind of what he ran into last year, and it was like, ‘Well, how do I fix it?’”
Start by long-tossing from greater distances. There were other drills, too. Stockton gave Painter a red, 6-pound ball and had him throw it as hard as he could from the mound, then do the same with a regular ball. As the shape of his fastball returned, the usual movement came back, too.
Painter and Luzardo worked out together six days a week with Stockton beginning in November. Painter worked on his changeup, which he threw a lot, especially to righties, in spring training. He worked on separating his sweeper from his traditional slider. He also lost about 15 pounds to get back to 225.
But Stockton noticed something else about Painter.
“He was just very motivated to get going from Day 1,” he said. “It’s a testament to how far he’s come. When he was 18-19, even when he was in high school and we were all training together, as you would expect from a kid that throws 100 in high school, he was a little immature. But that was only four years ago, and he’s leaps and bounds ahead of that.
“It helps him for the future. Is he going to be a Cy Young [winner] this year, or even Rookie of the Year? Chances are, he probably won’t. But when you can get some of these things out of the way at 22-23, those shortcomings that you have early on when you’re supposed to be the guy, it helps the career arc a little bit.”
Surely, they squeezed in some time for pickleball, too. The “skyball” doesn’t get better without practice.
But everything will come into focus Tuesday night. Painter’s parents and new fiancée (he got engaged last month) will be there. Kunkel, who now coaches at a high school in Orlando, is even skipping a game — “The first game I’ve ever missed as a high school coach, man,” he said — to be there with his wife and daughters.
Maybe even Hamels, who works for the Phillies, will be in attendance.
“Sometimes with young pitchers, you worry about them trying to do too much, and it can manifest itself with a lack of control or getting hurt,” Girardi said. “I think he learned from that experience, and I think he’s going be better for it, and I think he’s prepared for what’s coming up.”
CLEARWATER, Fla. — Felix Reyes always tries to maintain a positive outlook.
The 24-year-old Phillies prospect’s Instagram handle is the_positive26. It was partially inspired by a character in one of his favorite shows, the Colombian crime drama Surviving Escobar: Alias JJ, who would always say “el positivo.”
Reyes decided to adopt it as a mantra.
“I embraced it,” the Dominican said through a team interpreter. “So I just remain optimistic from that point onward. Watching that, I just tried to change my attitude, and I’ve just embraced that. And from that moment, always, everything I do, everywhere I go and everything I work in, I just go with that optimistic mindset. Just say that it will be done, and I will be ready for it, and we’ll get the results.”
Over the last year, Reyes has seen plenty of results, and he believes his mindset is a main reason. After posting a .243 batting average and .656 OPS at high-A Jersey Shore in 2024, he had a breakout minor league season in 2025. He won the Eastern League batting title at double-A Reading with a .335 average, and was also first in OPS (.937).
Reyes had a six-game taste of triple A at the end of the season following a late promotion. In 101 games combined in 2025, he hit 16 homers.
Phillies prospect Felix Reyes (left) celebrates his three-run homer on Monday with Garrett Stubbs.
“I worked really hard over the offseason to get ready for last year,” Reyes said. “So I was just ready to go, and I was ready for whatever they needed from me. … But last year is in the past already. This is a new year. This is a new season. So I’m just focused on this year, and we’re just focusing on getting the same results. Trying to enjoy the experience.”
Reyes, at 6-foot-3, has a ton of raw power. He was extended a nonroster invite to major league spring training, and has continued to mash. He has hit .333 with three homers in 17 games. He was reassigned to minor league camp on Wednesday.
“He can crush the ball,” said Bryan De La Cruz, who was Reyes’ teammate in the Dominican Winter League on the Toros del Este.
Said manager Rob Thomson: “Every time he swings the bat, it’s on the barrel.”
In his first big league camp, Reyes is taking the opportunity to learn as much as he can from the major leaguers around him.
“Every moment that I’ve been in this camp is around big leaguers, and that’s where I want to be,” Reyes said. “That’s where you want to be as a player. So I just think it’s trying to share time with them, spend time with them, learn about them, learn about the experience that they bring. Embrace the good advice that they give us.”
There remains a question mark about Reyes’ defense. Last season, he split his time between first base, third base, and corner outfield positions for Reading and Lehigh Valley. He has primarily played first base during spring training, but he also made two appearances in left.
Thomson believes his defense is improving.
“He’s a lot more athletic and he’s faster than people give him credit for, and he handles himself very well in left field,” Thomson said. “His first base play has improved greatly. He’s really under control, and he never gets sped up, it seems to me. So he’s a pretty impressive kid.”
But Reyes’ right-handed power is ultimately his most valuable asset for the Phillies.
During Monday’s game against Detroit, Reyes went 3-for-4, including a three-run home run off Tigers starter Jack Flaherty that was 107.1 mph off the bat. He later crushed a single off Flaherty even harder, clocking a 110.7 mph exit velocity.
Seeing results off an established major league pitcher like Flaherty have helped build Reyes’ confidence, he said. That was something he had discussed with De La Cruz at the game.
“We were talking about confidence, and what can come from being confident in yourself when you’re out there playing,” De La Cruz said. “And how good that can be.”
MIAMI — The record will reflect that Venezuela, a baseball-rich country with a loaded lineup and passionate fans who ring your ears with songs and chants, won the sixth edition of the World Baseball Classic, 3-2, here Tuesday night.
Just not before the Showman showed up.
With the most talented U.S. team ever assembled in danger of getting shut out, and with the pro-Venezuela sellout crowd raring to party, Bryce Harper bashed a game-tying two-run homer to straightaway center field in the eighth inning, javelin-tossed his bat, pointed to the flag on his sleeve and flexed for a camera after rounding third base, and provided irrefutable evidence that Americans do, in fact, have fun playing the game.
“I was telling people, I go, ‘This isn’t going to shock you guys if it happens,’” said Kyle Schwarber, a witness in the Phillies’ dugout to Bedlam at the Bank and so many other vintage Harper moments. “And then, bam!”
Said U.S. manager Mark DeRosa: “I knew he was going to have a moment. That’s who he is, right? He has the ability to have big moments in big spots. He wants it. He wants to be up there in that spot.”
It just wasn’t enough to beat Venezuela. Not after Eugenio Suárez’s double to center field drove in the go-ahead run off reliever Garrett Whitlock in the ninth inning, nearly blowing the retractable roof off Venezuelan.
Bryce Harper throws his bat after delivering a game-tying two-run homer in the eighth inning of the World Baseball Classic final Tuesday night in Miami.
But Harper’s seismic shot was the highlight of the two-week tournament for Team USA, which overcame a loss to upstart Italy in pool play and criticism of its manager for being overconfident at best, clueless at worst.
Leave it to Harper to deliver — and not only with a dramatic homer. He tried to rally Team USA with a pregame speech, too.
“I think the just biggest thing [Harper said] was just being us, representing us, playing for us,” Schwarber said. “He had a great message. It was from the heart, right? I know getting in front of a group of people isn’t easy sometimes. There was a lot of respect for that.
Harper waited 17 years for this. He hadn’t played for the country since 2009, when he was 16. He raised his hand for the last WBC in 2023 but withdrew after having elbow surgery. He desperately wants MLB to allow players to compete when baseball returns to the Olympics in 2028.
But Harper was 3-for-20 with seven strikeouts in five games through the quarterfinals. Layer that on top of the Phillies’ divisional-round knockouts in the last two postseasons, and it had been a while — maybe all the way back to the Orlando Arcia game in the 2023 playoffs — since he had “The Moment.”
Where did this one rank in his 15-year career?
Bryce Harper hits a 432-foot home run to center field during the eighth inning to tie the game at 2.
“Probably No. 2,” he said. “Probably right behind the San Diego homer, in Game 5 [to clinch the pennant in 2022]. I’ll probably put this right behind it.”
The Americans had only three hits against six Venezuelan pitchers. Two belonged to Harper. He lasered a 95 mph sinker to right field for a single in the sixth inning. In the eighth, he got a center-cut pitch from Andrés Machado. Statcast labeled it a changeup, although at 93 mph, it had the characteristics of a heater.
Either way, Harper unloaded — 109.4 mph off the bat, 432 feet to dead center.
“Yeah, what a moment,” Harper said. “I love the opportunity. I love the chance. I’m grateful for it. I thought when we tied it up right there that we had a good chance to win the game.”
And so, the emotion spilled out of him, as Team USA spilled from the dugout and met him at home plate.
“Just enjoy the moment,” he said.
The game was played against an unavoidable political backdrop two months after U.S. military forces captured Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro. But Venezuelan manager Omar López and the native players on the roster repeatedly steered clear of the topic.
“We’re here to [play] baseball,” Ronald Acuña Jr. said earlier in the week.
The last few days also sparked a debate about whether Dominican and Venezuelan players, who exude emotion on the field, have more fun than the more staid Americans. Harper, rarely afraid to play with flair, offered himself as proof that they don’t.
“Every country has their way they play, right?” Harper said a few days ago. “Latin American countries, a lot of energy. And I love watching it because that’s how I played when I was younger. I got in trouble for it, right? I came up, I used gray bats. I used different cleats, got my cleats cut. MLB told me I couldn’t use gray bats, couldn’t use my eye black, all that kind of stuff, right? I kind of got pounded for it.
“So, there’s an American way of basically what everybody talks about. But I think that’s so far from the truth.”
Bryce Harper celebrates his home run with Aaron Judge.
And upon hitting a moonshot in the late innings of a winner-take-all game in international competition, well, Harper didn’t hold anything back.
When it was over, many of the American players and staff watched from the third-base dugout as a mass of blue, yellow, and red jerseys celebrated around closer Daniel Palencia.
They arrived dressed in game-worn USA hockey jerseys, a gift from the gold medalists. But they left with silver medals that they took off their necks almost as soon as they were presented to them.
Harper made a point of shaking hands with many of the Venezuelan players.
“Venezuela’s a very proud place for their baseball,” he said. “I’m really happy for them. Obviously I want to win no matter what. That’s what I play for, to win championships and gold medals. But in that moment, it’s not about me. It’s about us and our game.
“They had a great tournament. I just wanted to let them know and say congratulations. They’re the best team in the world.”
DeRosa said he shared a “special moment” with Harper in his office. They were teammates with the Nationals in 2012, when Harper was a 19-year-old rookie. He couldn’t have imagined the WBC without him.
“I knew what his career was going to be like, with the multiple MVPs and how he’s competed,” DeRosa said. “I was just proud he was a part of the team, share a clubhouse with him again.”
Maybe Harper will do it again at the Olympics in two years.
LAKELAND, Fla. — A name like “Chuck King” almost demands a career as a baseball pitcher.
And that’s exactly what the Phillies minor leaguer who answers to it chose, though his path had a few detours.
King, who spent the 2025 season in the double-A Reading starting rotation, is not on the 40-man roster, nor was he extended an invite to major league spring training. When he pitches in Grapefruit League games as a call-up, his jersey doesn’t have a nameplate on the back.
Even so, King, 28, is taking the opportunity to learn as much as he can from the experience. And that includes Monday’s brutal outing, when the Tigers tagged him for 10 runs while he secured just four outs.
“I could choose to hang my head,” King said. “I got 10 hung on me today. Never a good feeling. But it taught me something. I learned something from it. And ultimately, that’s the goal of this entire thing.”
In another life, King wouldn’t have been on a mound at all on Monday. After five years pitching for Texas Christian University, he felt burned out. He wasn’t finding the same enjoyment in the game that he used to, and in 2021 he considered leaving it behind entirely.
Chuck King had a 4.38 ERA in 123⅓ innings at double-A Reading last season.
But when a career in biology — his college major — didn’t appear likely either, King decided to return to baseball in a completely different capacity. The Padres hired King to work in their sports science department.
King suddenly had access to information and data, like TrackMan software, that he couldn’t have imagined back in college. And he started to get the itch to get back on a mound again.
“I think the base reason as to why I re-fell in love with the game is because I found clarity and direction as to where to go,” he said.
On his own time, King would play catch with San Diego minor leaguers and apply the mechanical changes he had gained insight into through his day job.
Of all things, it was an explosion that changed everything. In 2023, King was working for the Padres’ single-A affiliate, the Lake Elsinore Storm, when a gas line sparked in their stadium and caused a natural gas explosion. The Storm’s scheduled games were canceled over the weekend, but the team still had a workout that Sunday.
With not much else going on that day, King found himself back on the mound.
“I thought, ‘Well, it’s a laid back kind of deal, right?’ So I’m gonna go up there and just see what comes out,” King said. “And it was, boom, 96 [mph]. Boom, 96. Boom. I was like, ‘OK, whatever I’m doing is working, and I’m in a really good place mentally, and I think that this is an opportunity for me to jump.’”
King’s fastball had been in the 92-94 mph range in college. After seeing the payoff on the radar gun, he quit his job and moved to Scottsdale, Ariz., to dedicate himself to his training at Driveline, a data-driven baseball performance center.
While there, he revamped his arsenal, adding a splitter, and when their pro day rolled around in 2024, King’s fastball touched 98 mph in front of scouts. It landed him a deal with the Phillies. After three years away from pitching, he appeared in 34 games across four levels of their minor league system as a 26-year-old in 2024.
“I think with where he came from, from analyst to getting himself in shape, getting back on the mound, I mean, he’s got nothing to lose,” said Phillies manager Rob Thomson. “ … He’s got to get ahead in the count, because he’s got good stuff. Split’s good, the cutter’s good, fastball plays. May have to add another pitch, different pitch.”
Delving deeper into the analytics side of baseball led King to fall back in love with the game. But a desire to learn has been a hallmark of his entire life. He also has an interest in botany and genetics, and is a hobbyist bird-watcher and wildlife photographer.
King has garnered some attention for the spelling of his middle name, Fuggitt (pronounced FEW-git). He was named after his great uncle, who was a fighter pilot in World War I.
It may not be very common for a professional baseball player to spend his spare time logging bird photos and identifying wildlife species on an app on his phone, but King doesn’t mind being different.
Phillies pitcher Chuck King gave up 10 runs on seven hits — including two homers — and four walks against the Tigers on Monday.
“At the end of the day, you have to remain authentic to who you are as a person,” he said. “And I think people always respect authenticity, and so I’m not going to be inauthentic to what I enjoy doing.”
King pitched 123⅓ innings for Reading last year, posting a 4.38 ERA. His first three call-ups to the major league side this spring went well. He didn’t allow a run over his first five innings of work, and recorded nine strikeouts to one walk.
One of the most valuable takeaways from his call-ups has been the conversations he’s had with Phillies pitching coach Caleb Cotham.
“That dude has blown my mind on seven different occasions,” King said.
They had a few of those conversations on Monday. Facing a Detroit lineup that included several regulars, including Spencer Torkelson, Riley Greene, Kerry Carpenter, and Colt Keith, as well as top prospect and Delco native Kevin McGonigle, King’s fastball command was erratic. He gave up 10 runs on seven hits — including two homers — and four walks.
“We talked about making bullpens more gamelike, and understanding when I’m trying to execute this pitch, what’s my thought process?” King said. “What am I telling myself? And all these little fine micro details that you don’t think about until you have a lineup like that.”
After the game, King went back to minor league spring training and will remain there until the next call-up arrives.
He’s not dwelling on it. If the last five years have taught him anything, it’s that detours are part of the journey.
“I got punched in the face and I stumbled back, and then I got hit again, and I got hit. And that’s how it goes,” King said. “But I can guarantee you that I will use that next time and say, ‘OK, like I’ve been here before. I’ve gotten punched in the face. I’ve gotten 10 hung on me.’
“Good! I will come back with a better mindset and a better perspective to now turn that 10 into five, and then turn that five into three, and then turn that three into one. And that’s the whole goal of it.”
CLEARWATER, Fla. — It usually takes about a day for social media to ruin everything. In the case of Jesús Luzardo, it’s right on time.
Monday was one day after the news broke that Luzardo and the Phillies decided it would be best for him to decline an invitation from Team Venezuela to pitch in the World Baseball Classic final on Tuesday if Venezuela made it that far.
Luzardo was born in Peru, but his family is from Venezuela, for whom he pitched brilliantly in the 2023 WBC and who placed him on the reserve list. He also grew up in the Miami area, where the semifinal and final are being played. That’s why he told two reporters Sunday that it “breaks my heart not being able to be there.”
On Monday morning, his heart was breaking for another reason. Many Venezuelan fans were angry that he didn’t accept the invitation.
“I feel like sometimes, you get painted as a traitor, or, you know, you get painted in this, like, negative light, because of some things that people say — you know, not only me, but my family,” Luzardo said Monday morning. “And I think that that’s tough. People from Venezuela are, like, ‘Why aren’t you helping us out?’”
Jesús Luzardo signed a five-year, $135 million contract extension with the Phillies last week.
Traitor? Really? A quick scan of popular social media outlets uncovered zero references to Luzardo as a traitor.
I asked Luzardo at lunchtime if he was sure about all the negative feedback.
“It’s there,” he replied, with a pained smile. “I know.”
Where? Twitter? Instagram?
“I’m not on social,” he said. “I just know what I saw and what I heard.”
Hmm. Here’s a thought: Maybe he was hearing it in Spanish, not English.
Bingo.
And there it was.
Comments under Instagram posts announcing Luzardo’s decision were … harsh.
They questioned his commitment to Venezuela, and many told him to pitch for Peru. They questioned his manhood. One poster dropped a poop emoji.
It’s important to understand the significance of the tournament to Venezuelans, for whom baseball is not just the national sport, but a pastime bordering on the religious. It’s sort of like Jalen Hurts turning down a Team USA for football.
To be fair, some folks understood and supported Luzardo’s decision. There were several rational replies. A few commented on comments and defended Luzardo’s decision. But the majority of the reactions were negative, personal, and hurtful.
It wasn’t just the mean tweets and nasty ’grams, either.
“When a headline came out the other day, and said [Team Venezuela] called me, and I just said, ‘No,’ because I didn’t want to — couldn’t be further from the truth, right?” Luzardo asked. “I think that really kind of rubbed me the wrong way, because that wasn’t truth.”
The truth is, Luzardo loves the World Baseball Classic, and he loves representing Venezuela.
The truth is, he said in 2023 that he’d fulfilled his grandfather’s dream by pitching for Team Venezuela.
Former Phillie Ranger Suárez joined Venezuela for the World Baseball Classic.
The truth is, after missing time in 2019, 2022, and 2024 with injuries, Luzardo enjoyed a superb 2025 and is finally fulfilling the immense promise that made him the No. 18 prospect in all of baseball when the Athletics called him up in 2019. After being traded to Philadelphia from Miami on Dec. 22, 2024, Luzardo went 15-7 with a 3.92 ERA, finished seventh in National League Cy Young Award voting, and pitched well as a starter and a reliever in the Phillies’ brief playoff run.
The truth is, Luzardo logged a career-high 191⅓ innings including playoffs, he has a history of injuries, and he is on a precise buildup program this spring. That’s partly because Luzardo’s profile in the rotation this year will be two clicks higher to start the season: Staff ace Zack Wheeler is coming back from thoracic outlet decompression surgery that will cost him at least the first month, and Ranger Suárez has departed to the Red Sox via free agency.
Yes, two weeks ago, as Luzardo declined his initial invitation, he said that if Venezuela made the final four, “If they need me, I’ll go.” That gave Venezuela reasonable hope.
Things change.
“When I spoke to Venezuela about being on the reserves, I said, ‘No promises,’” Luzardo said Monday. “They said, ‘We’ll understand if you’re not able to come.’ … It was for multiple reasons, it wasn’t able to come to fruition. Not only the contract situation, but other situations here that, you know — my obligations to this team. They want me to be ready to go. I have to make those [obligations] right.”
The truth is, it would have been foolish for Luzardo to risk an appearance in the WBC, no matter how important the tournament might be to Venezuela, or to him.
“I’m hopeful that in the next Classic, you know, they’ll take me into account,” Luzardo said. “I’d love to be there again.”
MIAMI — As a way of summarizing Aaron Nola’s two-start guest spot with Italy’s national baseball team, let’s borrow a phrase that fans in his adopted country can appreciate.
Venit, vidit, vicit.
Because Nola came from Phillies camp. He saw lineups filled with major league stars. And he did his part to help Italy conquer, leaving with a one-run lead after four innings in the World Baseball Classic semifinal here Monday night.
As it turned out, though, this wasn’t Julius Caesar at the Battle of Zela. Fueled by a potent, relentless, and frenetic offense, Venezuela ran down Italy’s Cinderella run, scoring three times in the seventh inning for a 4-2 victory that kicked off a party among a partisan — and deafeningly loud — sellout crowd in South Florida.
Next up for the Venezuelans: Team USA for the gold medal — yes, they actually receive medals — at 8 p.m. Tuesday night.
And for the Italians (or in most cases, Italian Americans)? Only fond memories from what many described as two of the best weeks of their careers. That included Nola, a veteran of 11 major league seasons and four consecutive playoff appearances with the Phillies.
“It was super cool. Super cool,” Nola said. “We had the time of our lives, man. Some of the best times I’ve ever had.”
Say this for Team Italy: It was the darling of the two-week tournament, with an espresso machine in the dugout and contributions up and down the lineup. (Phillies outfield prospect Dante Nori, for instance, went 8-for-20 with two homers and an 1.185 OPS.)
Initially, manager Francisco Cervelli planned to roll with Michael Lorenzen against Venezuela, but with a taxed bullpen, he went with Aaron Nola on regular (four days) rest.
And Nola was more than a pitching ringer, even if his initial interest in competing was, in part, to use the intensity of the WBC as a testing lab after making adjustments to his throwing program off the worst season of his career.
On that count, Nola was mostly, well, eccelente.
Last Wednesday, he cranked up his fastball to 94.5 mph, uncorked his signature curveball, and dominated Mexico for five scoreless innings to push Italy to the top seed in pool play over the U.S. Against Venezuela, he wasn’t as sharp. He topped out at 94.1 mph, got only two swings and misses, and left a curveball up for Eugenio Suárez’s solo homer in the third inning.
Yet, he struck out three batters, all on curveballs. He got longtime nemesis Ronald Acuña Jr. (16-for-52 with four homers and a 1.025 OPS in his career against him) looking at a curveball in the third inning. And he left with a 2-1 lead.
“I kind of felt out of whack today, but battled as best as I could,” Nola said. “I tried to get the sinker down later on. Felt like that was kind of the only thing working. I got some ground balls with it and kept the guys in the game as best I could.”
Nola also threw only 59 pitches, 10 less than his previous start. The plan, he said, was not to go more than five innings or 80 pitches. But manager Francisco Cervelli opted for a pitching gambit to compensate for a taxed bullpen.
Rather than starting former Phillies righty Michael Lorenzen against Venezuela and saving Nola for the final, if Italy advanced, Cervelli split the game between them. He used Nola for four innings and tried to get four from Lorenzen. But Jackson Chourio, Acuña, Maikel Garcia, and Luis Arraez notched consecutive singles in the seventh to nearly blow the retractable roof off loanDepot Park.
Regardless, Nola said he was satisfied with the workload in what amounted to his penultimate start before the season.
“Overall, my body and arm feels good,” he said. “I mean, I’m built up.”
Phillies prospect Dante Nori was among the standout players for Italy in the World Baseball Classic.
Besides, as Nola discovered, the tournament was about something bigger than tuning up for the season.
“There was a lot of people watching — watching in Italy,” he said. “That was a big goal, to bring more baseball to Italy. And we did. I think most of the American guys in this clubhouse don’t really understand what we did for that country.”
Nola hasn’t been to Italy. He qualified to represent the country in the WBC because his great-grandparents on his father’s side were from Italy (the Campania region in the south, to be exact). It was supposed to be a family affair. Nola’s brother, Austin, signed up to play but withdrew after getting hired as the Mariners’ bullpen coach.
But as Nola put it, he left the tournament with two dozen new brothers. And before they went their separate ways, they spent about 90 minutes together in the clubhouse after the game to reflect on the last two weeks.
“Nobody thought we were going to make it this far, and we did,” Nola said. “We’ve got a great group of guys. I love all those guys in there. I’m really glad I played.”
