wrote<\/a>. \u201cIf this were a normal spring, Wheeler said he likely would have already been on the mound a few times. But it\u2019s unclear when he will return to the mound, as he\u2019s awaiting medical clearance to do so. Much hinges on his arm strength. As of now, he\u2019s throwing up to 90 feet.\u201d<\/p>\nManager Rob Thomson provided additional context on what the next checkpoint looks like before Wheeler advances to throwing on the mound.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe next goal, Phillies manager Thomson said, is having Wheeler throw to 105 feet. Getting on the mound would come after that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Thomson even saying that Wheeler can throw from 105 feet soon enough and get on the mound after that is a very encouraging sign heading into the remainder of spring.<\/p>\n
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Once Wheeler can comfortably reach certain distances with no discomfort, the good stuff follows. It\u2019s a good thing that Wheeler is doing what he\u2019s doing right now, but the bigger focus is him eventually getting on the mound and being one of the top starters in Major League Baseball. Per Varnes, the Phillies and Wheeler both believe he can return to that level.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Phillies are optimistic Wheeler will return soon, and return to form. He feels the same way. Although he\u2019d like to pitch as soon as possible, Wheeler wants to take his recovery step by step.\u201d<\/p>\n
The veteran will have some stuff to work on this spring and it\u2019s even possible that it\u2019ll take longer than that. As long as he\u2019s healthy, I think he should be in a good spot to do what he\u2019s done for much of his career.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust take it day by day, things as they come and go,\u201d Wheeler said. \u201cJust trying to hit my checkmarks that me and (Phillies head athletic trainer) Paul (Buchheit) have come up with. So far, so good with that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There\u2019s been plenty of focus on the health of Zack Wheeler as the Philadelphia Phillies get going in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":571479,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2397],"tags":[5,4,144,25,4216,40,4874,151,117],"class_list":{"0":"post-571478","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-philadelphia-phillies","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-mlb","10":"tag-philadelphia","11":"tag-philadelphia-phillies","12":"tag-philadelphiaphillies","13":"tag-phillies","14":"tag-rob-thomson","15":"tag-spring-training","16":"tag-zack-wheeler"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116066955103472213","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/571478","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=571478"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/571478\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/571479"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=571478"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=571478"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=571478"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}