Tag: Zack Wheeler

CLEARWATER, Fla. — Before Zack Wheeler’s first bullpen session in over six months on Thursday, he didn’t have any expectations.

He knew he was going to throw only fastballs. That’s fairly typical for a pitcher beginning a ramp-up, because spinning the ball and throwing breaking balls requires more torque and therefore puts more pressure on the elbow. Wheeler has spun the ball during flat ground sessions and hopes to mix his offspeed offerings in more of his next few bullpens.

But other than knowing every pitch would be a sinker or four-seam, he had no expectations.

“I didn’t know how to feel [Thursday] or know what I was going to feel like [Thursday],” Wheeler said. “But I felt good. I felt smooth, natural.”

This is uncharted territory, as recovering from the venous thoracic outlet surgery Wheeler underwent on Sept. 23 is not like a typical injury. And throughout the process, Wheeler has focused on going at his own pace, rather than comparing himself to other MLB pitchers who have had the same surgery.

Wheeler, who had a blood clot near his right shoulder removed, is not viewing it as a sigh of relief, but rather another box ticked off in a long list of them.

“The first one’s throwing a baseball,” he said, “then the next one is throwing long toss; usually that feels good, and then getting off the mound, getting into a game, facing live hitters is probably the next one. You just have those checkmarks along the way.”

He added that he was at about 80-85% of max effort on Thursday. The Phillies have declined to publicize the radar gun readings of Wheeler’s bullpen.

In a typical year, Wheeler doesn’t have a set number of times he throws before arriving at camp. Sometimes he’ll arrive not having touched a mound yet, and other times he’ll have had four or five sessions already.

“It just depends. There’s been years where I came in and I’m basically at where I’m at right now. It’s a little different, but at the same time, I’m not too far behind,” Wheeler said.

Manager Rob Thomson described Wheeler’s shoulder Thursday as “stronger than it’s ever been.” Wheeler said he agreed with that.

“I’ve been strengthening it all offseason. I’ve got to give a lot of credit to Paul [Buchheit], the head trainer,” Wheeler said. “He’s been working with me all offseason, a few times a week, and he’s helped me get my arm a lot stronger. You’ve just got to help protect the area as much as possible. Concentrate a lot on the shoulder strengthening and just overall body. Hopefully, that helps out for the long run.”

Wheeler doesn’t know if he will be able to get into a game before camp ends. The Phillies are aiming to get him on a regular build-up schedule, which is two days off between bullpen sessions. His next bullpen is planned for Sunday, where he will throw 25 pitches and start mixing in his splitter with the fastballs.

If he takes things slow, does he think there could be any benefit when October rolls around?

“If I’m ready to go, I’m ready to go,” Wheeler said. “I don’t think I have any problem when October comes, usually. So I don’t think this year is any different than any other year, trying to preserve-wise.”

For his teammates, it’s been great just to have Wheeler back around them this spring.

“Just having his presence around is always good,” fellow starter Jesús Luzardo said. “Having his advice, him just being around adds that level of veteran — that we already have, obviously, with [Aaron] Nola and [Taijuan Walker], and we have other guys — but it’s just another added voice in the back of our heads that we can bounce ideas off of.”

Added Nola: “I didn’t see his bullpen, but heard it went well. I’ve just seen him throwing out on the fields, and he looks normal. Looks like Wheels.”

CLEARWATER, Fla. — Zack Wheeler toed the rubber on a mound Thursday for the first time in more than six months.

The 21 pitches — all four-seam fastballs and sinkers — Wheeler threw at the Phillies’ Carpenter Complex marked the next major step in his journey back from Sept. 23 thoracic outlet decompression surgery. A blood clot was discovered near the right-hander’s shoulder in August.

Wheeler had been recovering well from his long toss sessions, which had extended as far as 120 feet. The Phillies identified Thursday as a potential date for his first bullpen session and decided to go for it when he came in that morning feeling good.

“The velo was good, the ball flight was good,” said manager Rob Thomson, who declined to share the radar gun readings. “Hit the glove. He was good.

“… He thought it was great. He felt great. We’ll check him [Friday] and find out how he’s feeling, and get a plan going for moving forward.”

Could Wheeler be ready to pitch in major league games in six weeks?

“Possibly,” Thomson said. “It’s new stuff, and it’s different than a lot of other injuries. We really can’t pin it down to a week or a day.”

Typically when players are built up in the spring, the schedule is two days off between bullpen sessions. Thomson hopes that Wheeler will be able to adhere to that, but because of the uniqueness of the injury and recovery process, that isn’t certain.

Thomson added that he wasn’t surprised at Wheeler’s progress so far.

“He’s worked awfully hard, and that’s the key to it,” he said. “He’s worked harder than he’s ever worked in the offseason. So it’s a really good sign. He’s strong. Shoulder’s stronger than it ever has been. So really feel good about it.”

CLEARWATER, Fla. — Inside a closet at Zack Wheeler’s house, preserved and tucked inside a protective case, is one of his ribs.

The Phillies pitcher’s first rib was removed as part of the surgery he underwent in September to treat venous thoracic outlet syndrome. The rib is taken out to relieve compression of the subclavian vein.

It’s common for patients who undergo that type of surgery to receive their rib afterward, though it can be weeks or months later. But Wheeler’s doctor hand-delivered his.

“He was like, ‘I wanted to give it to you personally,’” Wheeler said from his typical corner locker at BayCare Ballpark. “So he just walked in and gave it to me in a bag. It was pretty gross.”

Wheeler, making his first public comments since his TOS diagnosis, had just finished a recovery day on Wednesday, on the first official day of Phillies camp for pitchers and catchers.

“It’s not something that you expect to happen in your life or your career,” Wheeler said. “You might expect to have a shoulder or elbow [injury] throughout your career. The blood clot thing is something that’s kind of rare and you don’t expect to have. So when you get told that, it’s just something you just have to sort of sit back and think about for a second.”

Wheeler had first experienced heaviness near his right shoulder following a start on Aug. 15 in Washington, and Nationals team doctors identified an upper extremity blood clot.

He underwent a thrombolysis procedure to remove the clot, and multiple specialists afterward diagnosed him with venous TOS, which ended his 2025 season.

“After the surgery, you battle the tightness and the soreness and stuff like that,” Wheeler said. “The first week was really tough after it, soreness-wise, obviously. … Now, I feel pretty much normal.”

Wheeler spent the winter in Philadelphia, where he worked with Phillies trainer Paul Buchheit on getting back his range of motion and strength. Manager Rob Thomson said earlier this week that it is doubtful Wheeler will be ready for opening day on March 26, but that he shouldn’t be “too far beyond that.”

Wheeler has been encouraged by his progress, but he isn’t looking that far ahead. Instead, he’s focused on taking things day by day and checking off each box as it comes.

The next step is building up his arm strength. He is throwing at a maximum distance of 90 feet four times a week, which soon will be extended to 105 feet. Then, it’s flat-ground drills, which are the final step before Wheeler can get on a mound.

“I just kind of do what they tell me, ask what I got for the week, and kind of just go about it that way,” Wheeler said. “I try not to get my hopes up one way or the other, and that’s kind of how I’ve always been. Just take it as it comes and just do the work that I’m needing to be done that week.”

Throughout this process, Wheeler, 35, said he never considered the possibility that he might not pitch again.

“I think that any athlete, you have surgery, you’re optimistic about it,” he said. “You always had that good mindset where you come back and be the same performer as you were. So that’s kind of my mindset the whole time. I’m moving back to where I was, and I think that’s the right mindset to have.”

The next time he does step on the mound, he’s expecting to be the same Wheeler, even if he is one rib lighter.

“Hopefully,” Wheeler said, “I can get back out there and do my thing.”

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.”

“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.

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.”