Phillies Ace Pursuing Career Year, Elusive First Cy Young Award

It has been an amazing start to the season for the Philadelphia Phillies, who have one of the best records in baseball, despite a sluggish start.

Coming into the year, the Phillies projected to have one of the best starting rotations in baseball. So far, the unit has lived up to the hype with nearly the entire rotation pitching well.

However, the unit has had to deal with some adversity. Aaron Nola has been the one starter to have some noticeable struggles this campaign and is now on the injured list. Furthermore, Ranger Suarez started the season on the IL, missing about the first month of the year.

Luckily, Taijuan Walker has been able to step in and pitch much better than last season. The former All-Star was completely lost on the mound in 2024 but has since been performing at a high level.

While the rotation overall has been very good, it has been a few pitchers in particular who have been excellent.

Is Philadelphia’s Ace Having Best Year Yet?

Jeffrey Lutz of MLB.com recently wrote about Phillies ace Zack Wheeler potentially having the best season of his career in 2025.

“Although Wheeler's season is hardly an outlier when considering what he’s done throughout his Phillies tenure, the improvements he’s made in 2025 could be enough to get him the Cy Young he’s been missing," Lutz wrote.

Since signing with Philadelphia, there have been few pitchers in the National League during that span better than Wheeler. The right-hander was the runner-up to Chris Sale for the NL Cy Young award last campaign but is arguably on his way to his best season yet.

So far in 2025, he has totaled a 6-1 record, 2.42 ERA, and 88 strikeouts in 11 starts. The numbers for the two-time All-Star have been excellent, and are slightly better than what he accomplished in 2024.

Currently, Wheeler has a lower ERA and higher strikeout rate than he did last year, resulting in the 34-year-old potentially being on pace career numbers in both categories.

Since the ace of the staff for the Phillies has been runner-up twice for the NL Cy Young, he has to know that his chances of winning the award are likely limited at his age.

However, despite having an amazing year so far, he has a lot of competition in the league for the award. Paul Skenes of the Pittsburgh Pirates is off to an amazing start to the campaign and has firmly established himself as one of the best pitchers in baseball.

Furthermore, Wheeler has competition on his team with Jesus Luzardo pitching like an ace.

With a lot of the year still to go, the performance of Wheeler in his quest to win the NL Cy Young will be something to monitor.