The Phillies entered Sunday with a five-game lead in the NL East, despite losing four of their last five games. The weekend brought more bad news, specifically regarding their rotation. Saturday night, news dropped that the Phillies were placing ace righty Zack Wheeler on the injured list due to a blood clot in his shoulder area. More on that in a second.
Sunday, veteran right-hander Aaron Nola returned from a lengthy stint on the injured list. He’d been out of the rotation since May 14 due to a sprained ankle and a stress reaction in his rib cage. Nola greatly struggled before injury, as he was 1-7 with a 6.16 ERA and 1.51 WHIP through his first nine starts of the season. We’re talking about a former All-Star who had finished in the top five of Cy Young voting twice and came in 11th in 2024.
Wheeler’s injury obviously opened up a spot in the rotation so Nola just slid right in. Unfortunately for Nola and the Phillies, his problems don’t appear to have been solved.
Things were fine through two innings, as Nola retired six of the first seven batters he faced. He would not make it out of the third inning, however. After a strikeout to start the third, Nola gave up three singles, a walk and then two doubles before being removed. The final damage was six earned runs on seven hits in 2 ⅓ innings. His ERA is now 6.92.
Nola joins Cristopher Sánchez, Ranger Suárez, Jesús Luzardo and Taijuan Walker in the Phillies’ rotation for now, without Wheeler. There’s a chance the Phillies could promote top prospect Andrew Painter at some point soon and go with a six-man rotation. But Wheeler’s absence — however long it may be — will be strongly felt, especially if Nola can’t get back closer to All-Star form.
Wheeler had been dealing with stiffness in his right shoulder lately and then reported new symptoms after Friday’s start. It is a blood clot near his throwing shoulder. Via The Athletic:
Further testing and evaluation will be conducted in Philadelphia early next week, revealing a more specific prognosis and timeline. [Head athletic trainer Paul] Buchheit said he does not believe last week’s shoulder stiffness is related to the blood clot.
As noted, we’ll hear more in the next few days, but there’s concern right now that this injury could affect Wheeler’s availability for the rest of the regular season and maybe the playoffs.
Losing Wheeler for any length of time is a major blow for the Phillies and if they don’t have him for the postseason, it’s exponentially worse. He’s a legit, top-shelf ace. He’s finished second in Cy Young voting twice, including last season, and is 10-5 with a 2.71 ERA this season. He lead the NL with a 0.94 WHIP and leads the majors with 195 strikeouts.
The Phillies do have a full, five-man, rotation without Wheeler. And, sure, Sánchez has looked like an ace for much of the season, but the best part of that emergence was that the Phillies could have a second ace for their playoff rotation.
As such, the Wheeler situation bears serious monitoring for every potential playoff team. Same with the Nola situation, too, really. A good and healthy Nola could help alleviate some of what the Phillies lose with Wheeler injured, but if Nola keeps pitching like he did Sunday and there’s no firm return date for Wheeler, the Phillies’ prospects of a deep playoff run take a monster hit.