Philadelphia Phillies Ace Predicted to Finally Win National League Cy Young

This Philadelphia Phillies pitcher has been circling Major League Baseball's top prize for the past several years.

Oct 5, 2024; Philadelphia, PA, USA; Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Zack Wheeler (45) reacts in the seventh inning against the New York Mets in game one of the NLDS for the 2024 MLB Playoffs at Citizens Bank Park. / Bill Streicher-Imagn Images

With spring training moving right along for the Philadelphia Phillies, expectations for the team will once again be high coming into the campaign. 

Last season, the Phillies went into October as one of the favorites to win it all. The talented core of the team is still mostly in their prime and with moves made during the season to improve, it felt like Philadelphia was primed for a long postseason run. 

Unfortunately, they fell well short of those expectations. The Phillies were eliminated in the National Leage Division Series after winning just one game against the New York Mets. 

Even though the series loss was a bad one, Philadelphia didn’t panic this winter. They will be heading into the new season with largely the same group of players, but with a couple of new additions. 

As the team prepares for the season, their greatest strength is going to be their starting rotation. After the trade that brought in Jesus Luzardo to be the fifth starter, the rotation is going to be able to go toe-to-toe with the Los Angeles Dodgers in terms of talent. 

However, while the unit is really strong overall, the ace of the staff will be seeking an individual accolade that has eluded him. 

Will Leitch of MLB.com recently predicted that Phillies ace Zack Wheeler will finally burst through and win the Cy Young award in 2025.

The 34-year-old ace is coming off one of the best years of his career in 2024. Wheeler was able to total a 16-7 record, 224 strikeouts and pitched 200 innings. Unfortunately, for the second time in his career, he came up just short of winning the Cy Young with a second-place finish. 

While it was an excellent campaign for Wheeler, losing out to Chris Sale was to be expected, considering he just narrowly edged out the right-hander in a couple of key pitching categories. 

For the ace of the Phillies, he hasn’t shown any signs of slowing down despite being in his mid-30s. However, when it comes to winning the award that has eluded him, the competition will be challenging this year in the National League once again. 

All eyes will be on Pittsburgh Pirates star pitcher Paul Skenes, who burst onto the scene in 2024 and won the National League Rookie of the Year. 

It has been an amazing career for Wheeler thus far. However, adding a World Series win and a Cy Young would be the icing on the cake. Fortunately, he will be positioned to accomplish both in 2025.  

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