CLEARWATER, Fla. — Zack Wheeler said he is healthy, and that is the most important thing with Opening Day less than a week away.
Not everybody is so lucky.
Wheeler threw 45 pitches in two-plus innings on Saturday morning in an intrasquad game against Phillies prospects at BayCare Ballpark. He was scheduled to face the Blue Jays at TD Ballpark in Dunedin, but the threat of rain prompted the Phillies to pitch him earlier. It was Wheeler’s first start since the end of last season. He entered camp behind schedule after throwing an MLB-best 213 1/3 innings in 2021 and experiencing soreness in his right shoulder when he started to throw again in December.
Wheeler said he has experienced no soreness since the beginning of camp.
His start on Saturday kept him on track to pitch Thursday against more prospects in Clearwater before he faces the Mets on April 12 at Citizens Bank Park. Wheeler will not face a big league hitter before then.
“I don’t think it matters,” Wheeler said. “I mean, you probably want to get into a game, but I’ve been communicating with them the whole time and I’m pretty honest with them, so if I’m feeling like I’m ready and I’m not going to hurt the team, I’ll do that. How I’ve been pitching and how the ball is coming out of my hand — if I can feel like the slider is there and the cutter is there, those are tricky pitches to throw. So if I feel it’s coming out of my hand good and I have control of it, I think I’ll transition into the game fairly easily. So I think I’m game ready even though I haven’t pitched in a game.”
Obviously, it is critical to the Phillies’ success to have Wheeler healthy and effective this season. He was the NL Cy Young runner-up last season, after all. He could be a Cy Young contender again.
The Mets are contemplating a bullpen game for the opener.
“It definitely helps us, hurts them, there’s no question about that,” Wheeler said about deGrom. “They have other guys to step up, but he’s the best in the game. So whenever that kind of guy goes down, it really does hurt the team. As good as the other guy is that’s going to come in, you really can’t match that, so it’s definitely good for us right now and it stinks for deGrom. I feel bad for him. Hopefully he can get healthy — and then we can hit him.”
Wheeler allowed five runs on Saturday, but a four-run inning should have been over before it started, if a couple plays had been made in the field.
But Wheeler did allow a home run to Phillies prospect Kendall Simmons, whom they selected in the sixth round of the 2019 Draft.
The two had a brief conversation afterward.
“I work out with him during the offseason [in Georgia], so I said, ‘Don’t be going into next offseason bragging about that,'” Wheeler said, smiling. “I was trying to throw the slider. I hadn’t really worked on it that inning out of the windup, and of course he smokes it. It wasn’t the right time to throw it in the count, but, yeah, playing around with it.”
Wheeler has one more start to work on it before everything counts.
“Felt good,” Wheeler said. “Mechanically, I felt good, on time. The ball was coming out good. A few misses here and there, but that’s to be expected. Coming out of it healthy is my biggest thing right now.”