Phillies Possess Best Starting Pitching Trio After Dominant Month

The Philadelphia Phillies knew coming into the 2025 MLB regular season that their starting rotation was going to be a strength of the team.

Their biggest move made during the offseason was bolstering the No. 5 spot, acquiring Jesus Luzardo from the Miami Marlins.

Outside of a two-start blip on the radar where he may have been tipping pitches, he has been dominant. Taijuan Walker, the person Luzardo replaced, has been good, making starts and being a multi-inning reliever out of the bullpen.

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The only struggles the team has experienced with its starting rotation are those of Aaron Nola, who is on the injured list for the first time since 2017.

His struggles came out of nowhere, but at least the Phillies possess the best starting pitching trio in baseball to help compensate for his injury and underwhelming production: Zack Wheeler, Cristopher Sanchez and Ranger Suarez.

Leading the way is Wheeler, who is coming off one of the most dominant months for a starting pitcher in baseball history.

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In June, he made five starts, throwing 31 innings and allowing only two earned runs, while racking up 42 strikeouts. He had a 0.871 WHIP, dominating opponents in incredible fashion as he builds his resume to potentially win his first Cy Young Awar after being the runner-up twice.

On the season, Wheeler has already racked up 4.4 bWAR with a 2.27 ERA across 107 innings with a National League-best 136 strikeouts.

Suarez, who got a late start to his season because of injury, was lights out in June as well.

His 1.30 ERA was fifth best in the Major Leagues amongst players who threw at least 20 innings, making six starts while throwing 41.2 innings.

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He picked a perfect time to put together arguably the best campaign of his career since he is set to hit free agency after the season. Through 11 starts, he has thrown 72 innings with a 2.00 ERA and 67 strikeouts.

Last but not least is Sanchez, who was dominant in his own right in June with a 1.85 ERA across his five starts and 35 innings.

He has seen an impressive uptick in strikeouts this season with 103 in 93.2 innings. Last year, he had only 153 across 181.2 innings of work.

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Also producing career-high numbers in several categories, Sanchez is successfull building upon his All-Star campaign in 2024, taking his game to another level and blossoming into a front end starter.

As long as those three remain healthy, Philadelphia is going to be able to hang with any contender in the league.

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