Philadelphia Phillies Ace Continues To Reinvent Himself Despite Already Being Elite

The Philadelphia Phillies are off to a bit of a lackluster start by their standards, but the team has seen some impressive performances so far from key players.

It hasn’t been an ideal start to the year for the Phillies. After the disappointing playoff loss last campaign, the team still has a bad taste in their mouth from the early exit.

This winter, the franchise attempted to make some improvements to areas that were exposed as weaknesses in the postseason last year.

Most notably, Philadelphia added Max Kepler, Jordan Romano, and Jesus Luzardo. While Luzardo has been excellent and Kepler has been solid, Romano has been a disaster so far in the bullpen.

Once again, the seemingly yearly trend of the Phillies having bullpen issues is continuing.

Even though the team still has some issues, Philadelphia has the roster and the capability to be a contender once again this campaign.

Fortunately, they feature one of the best starting rotations in the league, which is led by the runner-up in the NL Cy Young last season.

Tim Britton of The Athletic (subscription required) recently wrote about Zack Wheeler continuing to pitch well late into his career with a willingness to make adjustments to improve.

“One of the best pitchers in baseball for a long time now, Wheeler knows his willingness to play around with his mix and his facility with learning new pitches are big reasons for his success.”

Since joining Philadelphia in 2020, there have been few pitchers in baseball that have been better than Wheeler. The right-hander has been the ace of the staff and has helped them achieve quite a bit in recent years.

While he has been the ace, he has also been a two-time runner-up for the NL Cy Young. Both years were tight races, but Wheeler has unfortunately not been able to earn the accolade.

Last campaign, he totaled a 16-7 record, 2.57 ERA, and 224 strikeouts. It was certainly a Cy Young caliber season, but the award ended up going to Chris Sale of the Atlanta Braves.

At 34 years old, the All-Star is continuing to work on his craft and introduce new things into his repertoire to find success.

This year, he has been using a sinker a bit more, which has resulted in a lot of success early on.

While it’s still very early, the ace of Philadelphia is off to another strong start. Surely, he would like to win a Cy Young after coming close last season, but he is likely more focused on helping this team win a World Series.

As one of the best pitchers in baseball, Wheeler continues to impress despite getting older.