PHILADELPHIA — Phillies right-handed pitcher Zack Wheeler underwent successful thrombolysis surgery Monday to remove a blood clot in his right shoulder.
The ramifications for that procedure on the Phillies’ hopes in 2025 are massive. But those took a backseat in the clubhouse to the immediate concern for the health of Wheeler beyond the baseball diamond.
“A lot of people ask me about the pitching staff, the team, and right now, my thoughts are just about him,” manager Rob Thomson said before a game with the Seattle Mariners. “I said the other day, this isn’t like a hamstring or a calf. This is real. This is life, and my thoughts are constantly on him and his family, and hopefully everything works out. So far, so good.”
The Phillies placed Wheeler on the injured list Saturday. He’d been struggling in his last several starts with declining stuff and elevated pitch counts, despite the Phillies getting him an extra day of rest before his next-to-last start. He still gritted out five innings with two runs allowed in the Phillies’ 6-2 win Friday night, a no-decision for Wheeler.
But Wheeler reported shoulder pain, which revealed the clot and hopefully avoided a more dangerous situation than just his ability to pitch again this season.
Wheeler, 35, has been excellent this year. He’s 10-5 with a 2.71 ERA in 149 2/3 innings. If healthy, the three-time All-Star is unquestionably the person who would pitch Game 1 of a playoff series for the Phillies, as he has the last three Octobers. In six seasons with the Phillies, he’s 69-37 with a 2.91 ERA over 979 innings. He’s made at least 26 starts in each of the last four seasons and is up to 24 in 2025.
Whether he’ll pitch again this year is both up in the air and, to Thomson, of secondary concern.
“We don’t know,” Thomson said. “We don’t know until we get further information.”
“We love Zack, man,” Bryce Harper said after Monday’s 12-7 win over Seattle. “He’s one of our guys in here. He’s one of our leaders, one of heartbeats that makes us go every fifth day. He’s been one of the best pitchers in all of baseball the last five, six, seven years. So it’s irreplaceable. You start thinking about not just the game, but his family and his kids and everything else. It’s bigger than this game, and knowing everything went well today is good.”
The Phillies were planning to use six starters upon Aaron Nola’s return from the injured list last Sunday. Without Wheeler, they’ll revert to a five-man staff.
It’s certainly much less sturdy. Christopher Sanchez has been brilliant all year. Jesus Luzardo has been up-and-down, and Taijuan Walker, who pitched himself out of the rotation last year, is arguably the second most reliable of the bunch, with a 2.89 ERA in 37 1/3 innings over seven starts since returning to the rotation. Nola is a quandary: He went on the IL with a 6.16 ERA in nine starts before an ankle sprain that turned into a rib fracture, then gave up seven hits and six earned runs in 2 1/3 innings in his return Sunday.
Ranger Suarez stepped up in the first test, tossing into the seventh and allowing just two runs (one of which was inherited by Jordan Romano) and striking out 10.
“Personally, I just want to him to recover as quickly and as good as he can,” Suarez said via a translator. “Coming into the stadium today, I was thinking, and maybe that’s what we’re all thinking, as a starting staff, is we lost a great pitcher, we lost a great player. And we just have to do the best and perform as best we can so we can try to fill those shoes.”
The Phillies have another card to play in Triple-A in Andrew Painter. The top prospect has an ERA of 5.15 over 21 starts with Lehigh Valley, and three solid starts in July have dissolved into 14 ER allowed in his last 13 1/3 frames. He’s also at 92 2/3 innings for the season.
In addressing the absence in the clubhouse, Thomson stressed that the remaining staff just needs to continue doing what has led to the third-best ERA (3.49) and most innings worked (707.1) in baseball.
“As I told everybody, just be yourself,” Thomson said. “That’s all we can do. Don’t try to be anybody else, because they’re good enough just the way they are.”
“We’re definitely going to be missing him here,” Harper said. “But we just want him to get better and feel better, and he knows we have his back, and wherever he comes back in here as a player or to pitch or anything else, we’ll be here with open arms. We just want him to get better and be Zack.”
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As the rotation changes, so does the bullpen behind it. The Phillies Monday recalled Nolan Hoffman from Lehigh Valley to bolster the ‘pen. Max Lazar was demoted.
There will be another change Tuesday when Jose Alvarado is eligible to return from his 80-game suspension for testing positive for performance-enhancing substances. Thomson said the power lefty will be activated as soon as eligible.
Hoffman was drafted by the Mariners in 2018. He was acquired from the Rangers in a cash deal on June 17. The 28-year-old, three-quarters righty had a 3-0 record and 3.32 ERA in 17 appearances (19 innings) for Lehigh Valley.
“It’s a different look because it’s a real low, three-quarter arm slot,” Thomson said of Hoffman, who has yet to pitch in the big leagues. “The fastball plays, a real large sweeper, slider. He’s actually thrown the ball really well. He’s kept his walks down of late, nice strikeout right and he’s getting lefties out better than righties.”
Lazar has been solid, with a 4.78 ERA in 28 appearances (32 innings). Much of that came in one terrible outing against the White Sox. In the other 13.2 innings from early July to Saturday, he allowed just six hits and one earned run, then he allowed three earned runs Sunday in Washington.
Lazar pitched each of the last two days, so the Phillies need a fresh arm, especially since Suarez has struggled in three of his last four outings.
Alvarado allowed four hits and four walks with four strikeouts in five scoreless innings for Lehigh Valley in his ramp-up assignment. Thomson said he’s looked like his normal self. He was suspended by MLB on May 18 and is ineligible for the postseason in 2025.
Source: Berkshire mont
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