Phillies Confident Zack Wheeler Is Close to Breakthrough

Wheeler has consistently said he isn’t injured, which points to a mechanical issue being what holds him back. He tried making an adjustment with how he used his legs, but it messed up his off-speed pitches.

More tinkering is needed, and pitching coach Caleb Cotham detailed what could help Wheeler on the mound, as he needs to find easy repetition in his delivery.

“He’s doing it,” Cotham said, via Charlotte Varnes of The Athletic (subscription required), “but when you’re pitching, you don’t want to have to be thinking about how to do something. I think there’s a little bit of, like, it’s conscious now. We want to work hard to get it simple enough that it’s kind of unconscious, so you can completely free up your mind to make pitches.”

Something certainly has to be done because Wheeler has not been the same for the last few weeks. In his first start in the second half, he threw seven strong innings against the Los Angeles Dodgers, giving up only two earned runs.

Zack Wheeler in midst of toughest stretch of career

Since that point, across six starts, Wheeler has an 8.51 ERA in 24.1 innings pitched. He has been hurt by the long ball, serving up eight of them, and has lost command of his arsenal, walking 16 batters. In three out of his last four starts, he has walked at least four batters.

Wheeler is still racking up strikeouts with 31, but that is the only positive with his current form. In his most recent outing against the Seattle Mariners, he had arguably the worst start of his career; he gave up nine hits, including four home runs, and walked five, resulting in eight earned runs.

That certainly isn’t going to get the job done. If Philadelphia is going to compete in the National League, they need Wheeler to rediscover the form he showed through his first 16 outings.