Phillies

Maybe There’s Something Wrong With Me, But I’m Not That Worried About the Phillies Losing Zack Wheeler

By Kevin Kinkead

Published: Aug 25th, 2025 · 10:27 AM EDT

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So Zack Wheeler is done for the year. Blood clot removal and thoracic outlet syndrome.

Let’s welcome back the 2017 memories of Markelle Fultz that we had filed away in a dark corner of our brains, never to be remember again. Let the PTSD flood your thoughts like Hurricane Erin tossing waves at the assembled goofballs on the Wildwood boardwalk.

On one hand, you take the news at face value. This totally blows. There is no way the Phillies win a World Series without Wheeler, right? And Jose Alvarado! How are they supposed to get it done without their ace and without one of their top bullpen arms? It just sounds so ridiculous on the surface to think that everything is going to be alright without those two guys on the mound in October.

And yet, oddly, it feels like the Phillies vibes have not taken a hit. I feel… confident in the Phillies? Why? Why is there not more doom and gloom both internally and on the toxic timelines of Twitter and Facebook?

Three reasons I think:

1) Phillies fans are already living on the edge in perpetuity, so negative news doesn’t really have sticking power. That’s my theory, almost like there’s a pre-existing numbness to these types of things, like you expect to eat shit at least a few times during the course of 162 games. This has been a rollercoaster season of knee jerk reaction even though the Phils are one of baseball’s best teams. They’re playing better baseball in the second half of 2025 than the second half of 2024. And the postseason exits of the past two seasons largely had to do with the hitters being undisciplined at the plate and chasing garbage out of the zone, so Wheeler’s exit doesn’t affect that one way or another.

If the bats go cold in October, it doesn’t matter if Zack Wheeler is out there or not (as we saw last season). You could have prime Sandy Koufax and Steve Carlton out there as your #1 and #2 and it won’t matter. Bottom line, they gotta hit no matter who is on the mound.

2) Thankfully Dave Dombrowski built a starting rotation that’s brilliant even without Wheeler:

• Cristopher Sanchez: 2.46 ERA, hasn’t allowed more than three earned runs in a game since July 28th
• Aaron Nola: Looked like Aaron Nola in his second start following three months on the IL. 6 IP, five hits, two earned runs, dinged for a couple of homers as usual. Those starts are going to be enough in the postseason if the Phils bats are even half-awake.
• Ranger Suarez: 3.07 ERA, returned from a rough outing in Cincy to throw 13.2 innings of two-run ball with 21 strikeouts against the Mariners and Nationals.
• Jesus Luzardo: Looks a lot more like himself after rough summer. 3.00 August ERA and 19 strikeouts in his last two starts.
• Cy-Juan Walker: Hasn’t allowed more than three earned runs since returning to the starting rotation.

That’s a top-10 MLB rotation even without Wheeler. Bona fide ace, three above-average arms, and then a 5th starter who gives you a chance every time he goes out there. How many teams would like to have something like that? Quite a few.

3) The Nick Foles effect.

2017 and 2018 changed everything.

When Carson Wentz went down in Los Angeles, a lot of Eagles fans thought it was the end for that team. They had a great defense the entire season, but Foles was four years removed from his 27 touchdown, two interception season and people weren’t sure if they were getting that Nick or the one who underwhelmed in St. Louis and Kansas City. As the story goes, they got the former, not the latter, and it led to the first Super Bowl in franchise history.

For that reason alone, you can’t close the door on a season entirely. Maybe if Joel Embiid goes out for the year, sure, but you’re talking seven and eight-man rotations in playoff basketball. This is football and baseball, where the QB sits on the sideline for half the game and the pitching ace only appears every fourth game. So if you don’t have the horses to make up for those absences, you probably weren’t good enough to win it all anyway.

Right now, this very moment, Phils have won six of seven. They open a three-game set in New York with Sanchez on the mound. They’re seven games up on the Mets. If they have a good series up there at Citi Field, then how can you not be all in? This is a really good team. If they keep it humming without Wheeler, the vibes are going to be as high as they’ve been all season.