CLEARWATER, Fla. \u2014 If the Phillies could have it their way, they’d prefer to have their highest-paid starter and top prospect on the field when the season begins.<\/p>\n
The club wants to check all the boxes first.<\/p>\n
When Philadelphia made the postseason for the fourth consecutive year last fall, they were without rotation anchor Zack Wheeler. He’s been rehabbing from thoracic outlet decompression surgery and has approached this spring like any other, just with a different sense of urgency.<\/p>\n
The rotation has been flawless without him. The five projected starters have combined for a 1.06 ERA across 17 innings this spring.<\/p>\n
No need to rush.<\/p>\n
That’s been Wheeler’s sentiment from the start of camp. On Saturday, he fired his fourth bullpen session of the spring, and Rob Thomson gave reporters an encouraging update afterward.<\/p>\n
“He threw 15 pitches, sat down, got back up, threw another 15, and it was good,” Thomson said. “He threw all his pitches.”<\/p>\n
That’s a notable step forward. Earlier bullpens had been limited to fastballs only. Even with the ball coming out of his hand the way the Phillies want to see, the organization will continue to be patient. <\/p>\n
Thomson didn’t sound enthusiastic when asked about the possibility of Wheeler throwing in Grapefruit League action.<\/p>\n
“I don’t know about that,” he said.<\/p>\n
Wheeler has been throwing on two days of rest between sessions, and Thomson confirmed a fifth bullpen is scheduled for Tuesday. There is no exact timetable for his return, but all signs point to something close to May 1.<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tIt’s great to see Zack Wheeler on the first day of pitchers and catchers reporting at Phillies Spring Training. He discusses how he’s progressing from his thoracic outlet decompression surgery in September.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Orion Kerkering, who had been dealing with a minor hamstring strain, also threw on Saturday. Thomson liked what he saw.<\/p>\n
“Kerkering was really good,” he said. “The splitter is really coming on.”<\/p>\n
The picture is less clear for Aidan Miller.<\/p>\n
The Phillies’ most coveted prospect has been dealing with a back injury the organization has handled cautiously, and for good reason. Miller dealt with the same issue last season, which explains the hesitancy. <\/p>\n
Brass had been optimistic about a big-league role for the 21-year-old at some point in 2026, but with the injury resurfacing, it’s difficult to project when that happens.<\/p>\n
Thomson said Saturday that Miller had recently seen a doctor in Philadelphia, which Miller confirmed Sunday was Thursday’s visit.<\/p>\n
“We don’t have a timeline,” Thomson said. “He hasn’t swung a bat in two weeks. We just want to get him healthy where there’s no pain and get him back playing again.”<\/p>\n
Miller didn’t go into detail on the injury but made clear he expects it to resolve.<\/p>\n
“It’s not going to be a long-term thing,” he said. “Hopefully I can get past it right now and not worry about it again.”<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMiller, the Phillies top ranked prospect has his locker next to Bryce Harper’s in Clearwater this season, and he’s ready to learn from the former MVP.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
He’s been upset by the setback, but hasn’t let it pull him away from the learning environment around him.<\/p>\n
“Nobody is more frustrated than me that I’m not out there,” Miller said. “I’m just trying to be involved as much as I can, stay around the guys, ask a bunch of questions.”<\/p>\n
With the infield set, Miller didn’t have a direct path to the Opening Day roster regardless. He has mentioned outfield experience to the organization, but that doesn’t appear to be in the Phillies’ near-term plans.<\/p>\n
What’s becoming increasingly likely is that Miller won’t see game action before spring training ends, putting him at risk of missing the Triple-A season opener on March 27, one day after Major League Opening Day. <\/p>\n
Last season, primarily at Double-A Reading, he slashed .264\/.392\/.433 with an .825 OPS, 43 extra-base hits, 82 walks and 59 stolen bases.<\/p>\n
With Alec Bohm entering a contract year, the Phillies would love to see their former first-rounder show he’s ready to handle the bigs. But health comes first.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CLEARWATER, Fla. \u2014 If the Phillies could have it their way, they’d prefer to have their highest-paid starter…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":614548,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2397],"tags":[5,4,144,25,4216,40,16702],"class_list":{"0":"post-614547","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-phillies-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116198041599397910","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/614547","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=614547"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/614547\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/614548"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=614547"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=614547"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=614547"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}