Still Plenty of Interesting Starting Pitching Options for Phillies

The Phillies obviously need more starting pitching depth and president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski acknowledged as much on Monday, referring to it as a "focus."

Ace Zack Wheeler, who is recovering and ramping up from September thoracic outlet syndrome surgery, won't be ready for Opening Day. His season debut might come in late April. It might come at some point in May. There's no official return date because it will depend on how his arm responds to each step.

And, quite frankly, this is not the year to be pushing Wheeler as far as he can go. In 2024, he made 14 starts of at least seven innings. In 2025, he made six. He'll certainly be closer to the latter number in 2026. The Phillies need to maximize their ability to have him healthy and strong in October, a month he's owned with a 2.18 ERA in 70⅓ innings.

Phillies' projected Opening Day rotation

Without Wheeler, the Phillies' projected Opening Day rotation is Cristopher Sanchez, Jesus Luzardo, Aaron Nola, Taijuan Walker and Andrew Painter. There are some big questions within that group, such as how Nola bounces back from a terrible 2025, whether Walker can capably keep the Phils in the game and how quickly Painter can establish his place on the big-league staff. Pitching injuries are impossible to avoid, so the Phillies would need more than five or six starters even if there fewer question marks about the top five.

Internal depth candidates

Internally, the Phils have right-handers Alan Rangel (28 years old) and Jean Cabrera (24) on their 40-man roster. Neither has started a big-league game and Cabrera has yet to pitch at Triple A.

They invited veterans Bryse Wilson and Tucker Davidson to spring training. Wilson has a 4.82 ERA in the majors in 57 starts for four different teams. Davidson owns a 5.76 big-league ERA in 129⅔ innings and spent most of last season in Korea.

Maybe one or two of these guys could make a spot start at some point over a 162-game season, but it's not exactly a group you'd want to pull from for a month's worth of turns through the rotation.

Free-agent starters

There are still starting pitchers on the free-agent market ranging from "pretty good" to "could be helpful." There's Chris Bassitt, Zac Gallen, Lucas Giolito, Jose Quintana, Zack Littell, Max Scherzer, Justin Verlander, Nestor Cortes, Walker Buehler.

Some are more realistic than others. Scherzer and Verlander may be priced out of the Phillies' range. Both made at least $15 million last season and neither future Hall of Famer is highly incentivized to take a small deal. They'd both be more likely to wait things out and sign somewhere midseason.

Bassitt and Gallen would be much better than depth pieces but are both likely holding out for multi-year deals. Even if Gallen signs a one-year contract with the aim of rebuilding value for next offseason, that one-year deal would probably be outside the Phils' range as well.

Cost constraints

The Phillies were willing to spend $200 million over seven years for Bo Bichette even though this is their highest payroll ever, but that doesn't mean they're willing to add $25-30 million of salary for just anyone. They're paying the harshest possible penalties as a repeat luxury tax offender that is more than $60 million over the threshold, so every signing at this point costs a lot more than just the number the player signs for.

Giolito, Quintana or Littell would make a lot of sense if the contract is in the vicinity of one year and $8 million. That's below what any of them entered the offseason hoping for, but players tend to get antsy as camps open in Florida and Arizona. Aaron Civale, who is in a tier just below these three, reportedly agreed to a one-year, $6 million deal with the A's on Tuesday.

The Phils continue to scour the starting pitching market and will make at least one addition during camp, based on Dombrowski's words and actions running the front office. He's added starting pitching depth even at times when it wasn't the need it is now.