The Philadelphia Phillies are placing ace Zack Wheeler in the injured list with a blood clot near his right shoulder, president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski told reporters Saturday.
Wheeler will undergo further testing in Philadelphia and has no timetable to return. Aaron Nola will be activated from the injured list to replace him on the Phillies’ active roster.
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The exact nature of the blood clot is unclear beyond its rough location, but it is disquieting news for the first-place Phillies nonetheless with only a month and a half until the playoffs begin.
“There’s not a lot we can say about it at this time, but I commend [head athletic trainer Paul Buchheit] and the doctors here for finding this because it could have been a much more trying situation than what it is,” Dombrowski said.
Buchheit emphasized the team needed more information before figuring out when Wheeler will be pitching again.
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“Zack had been feeling better after his right shoulder soreness, but yesterday some symptoms had changed. He felt a little heaviness,” Buchheit said. “It’s still early on in the diagnosis, so I think we should gather more information before we put a prognosis and treatment plan together.”
At age 35, Wheeler is enjoying one of the best seasons of an already standout career, leading the NL in strikeouts with 195 and in WHIP at 0.935. Before Saturday, he sat behind only Pittsburgh Pirates ace Paul Skenes on the odds board for the NL Cy Young Award, for which he finished as runner-up last season.
With Wheeler atop the rotation and flanked by the likes of Cristopher Sánchez and Ranger Suárez, the Phillies have arguably the top rotation in baseball, leading MLB in innings pitched (705) and ranking second in ERA (3.42). Without Wheeler, things get much more dicey.
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After a 2-0 loss to the Washington Nationals on Saturday, the Phillies’ record sits at 70-53, 5.5 games ahead of the New York Mets for first place in the NL East. Not having Wheeler for the playoffs would be especially bad considering he owns a 2.18 ERA in the postseason and hasn’t allowed more than two earned runs in seven straight appearances.