Earlier today, the Phillies lost out on getting Cole Hamels back. From the beginning of the offseason, this was something I kinda figured the Phils would try to do, as they love Cole, and he loves Philly, and he's open, but...Atlanta had a better deal, and a one-year at that. So the Phils lost out on that, and I thought 'well, they seem to be chasing Zack Wheeler, but I don't know how long that'll take'
An hour and a half.
The Phillies managed to take one of the biggest pitching pieces on the board, Zack Wheeler, and nail him down for five years and 118 million. This is a move that I wasn't expecting the Phillies to pull off, and I'm so glad they did.
The #1 piece of help we needed last year was with starting pitching. The back half, with Velazquez, Eickhoff, Pivetta, Smyly, and eventually Vargas, tanking for us...was maddening. After a while, it was just Aaron Nola and Zach Eflin who were really showing up for us. With Arrieta allegedly back next year, and with Velasquez promising to behave, Zack Wheeler is a nice bet as a 2nd starter, and will give you around 200 innings a year, with a sub-4 ERA and close to 200 strikeouts. That kind of stability is nice for us, as we only really have that with Nola.
The one worrying detail with Wheeler is his injury-plagued numbers, as he missed 2 seasons due to injury, and needed a third to truly warm back up, but his material since 2018 has been more indicative of his abilities now. He's also 30, which, while not perfect, isn't as bad as it could be.
Wheeler seems to have the work ethic to fit right into that rotation and keep momentum going, a lot like James Paxton in New York. Hopefully this will pan out for us.
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