Zack Wheeler's way: The ace who knows what he likes — and has no time for everything else

New York Times

19 hours ago

As Phillies right-hander Zack Wheeler threw his between-starts bullpen session a few weeks ago in Cleveland, he heard something. Bang. Bang. Bang. From the corner of his eye, he saw reliever Orion Kerkering chuck a weighted ball against a nearby wall. Kerkering kept his distance; he probably needed even more room to do the drill properly. But this was Wheeler's space, and no one holds a straight face like he does.
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'Hey,' Wheeler said to Kerkering that afternoon, 'Can you do that stupid s— somewhere else?'
Kerkering, the youngest Phillies player, collected his things. 'But I was just messing with him,' Wheeler later said. 'He could have kept going.' Kerkering laughed. He understood the stare's playful intent.
'But I know he's the best pitcher in baseball, so just do what he says,' Kerkering said. 'No matter if he's joking or being serious.'
Wheeler has improved with age, defying assumptions about what an ace needs to stay elite in modern baseball. He has done it his way. There is nothing flashy about it: the way he prepares, the way he works, even the way he eats and dresses.
He knows what he likes. He has no time for everything else.
'If you're always adding and not subtracting enough, it can be a lot,' Phillies pitching coach Caleb Cotham said. 'The beauty of Zack is he has whittled it down to what's absolutely necessary. It frees up the bandwidth and the mental energy to focus on the game. Because he's at a level now where that's a huge demand. It's just the cost of being really good.'
Wheeler wields this power with a dominant six-pitch arsenal that makes him unpredictable — and a stare that those around him have learned is his best weapon. But that old-school gruff does not make him a contrarian.
Everyone on the Phillies has been on the other end of the Wheeler stare, even Bryce Harper. Last month, as Wheeler's pitch count rose against the Athletics, Phillies manager Rob Thomson stalled. J.T. Realmuto could be the bad cop. But Thomson could not get his catcher's attention. Thomson made eye contact with Harper at first base and mimicked a talking hand.
Harper inched toward Wheeler.
'He had no expression,' Wheeler said. 'And, once he got 15 feet from me, he just looked at me. I was like, 'Whaddya got?' He said, 'I don't know, they told me to come out here.''
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Realmuto reluctantly budged from his spot behind the plate. Wheeler asked him the same question. Same response.
'Just made them go back to their spots,' Wheeler said.
He was fuming all night because he pitched on a substandard mound in a minor-league ballpark. He walked his penultimate batter, prompting the mound visit. But Wheeler was playing the game. He knew the situation.
So he threw over to first base immediately after the mound visit to further stall. Wheeler seethed once he issued a four-pitch walk to his final hitter. He knew someone else would have to finish this inning. He handed Thomson the baseball without making eye contact. From the dugout, Wheeler watched as Kerkering cleaned up his mess. Kerkering did not seek out Wheeler afterward; he knew he'd be salty about walking consecutive hitters despite permitting zero runs to extend a scoreless streak to 22 2/3 innings.
Wheeler found him in the dugout.
'Did you get enough time to warm up?' Wheeler asked.
He wasn't being sarcastic.
Wheeler turned 35 three weeks ago; he remains in the conversation for the best starter in baseball. He has a 2.85 ERA. He has struck out 32 percent of the hitters he's faced in 2025, a rate that's third among all starters and the highest of Wheeler's career. He is the highest-paid pitcher in the sport this season. Others throw harder and garner more attention with pitches that go viral on social media.
Wheeler, a balding dad who cherishes his baggy shorts, is none of that. As he's aged, he has all but eliminated in-season workouts. He celebrated 10 years in the majors with postgame McDonald's for everyone. 'He eats like an absolute child,' Realmuto said. Wheeler does not obsess over video or advanced metrics. Other people do that for him. Once inside Wheeler's circle, the trust is absolute.
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'That wall starts to go down,' catcher Garrett Stubbs said. 'Then you get to see the other side of Zack Wheeler, and they're both genuinely him. But only a certain number of people get to see the other side.'
Those around Wheeler regard him as a freak — the highest compliment they can offer. Wheeler does not have to follow conventional wisdom.
It's why he is who he is at 35.
'He already naturally has everything that everybody else is trying to get,' Realmuto said. 'He has the high spin rate fastball, really good extension, and hides the ball well. He does all the things that everybody is trying to do.'
All roads lead to one core belief.
'He makes the game the most important thing,' Cotham said. 'Which it is.'
If that is the essence of Wheeler, it sounds simple. Too simple. That is the point.
One time, Kerkering saw Wheeler work out. Almost.
'Actually work out?' Kerkering said. 'No.'
But last season — it was in either Washington or Milwaukee, the reliever cannot remember — he stepped into the gym and saw a Diet Coke bottle with a sticky note on it. Wheels. Kerkering was confused.
'Well,' someone told Kerkering, 'when Wheels works out the few times he does a year, he treats himself to a Diet Coke.'
'That's fair,' Kerkering said.
The last time Wheeler worked out was the second week of April when the Phillies were in Atlanta. Earlier in his career, with the New York Mets, Wheeler did a lower-body workout the day after a start and an upper-body one on his bullpen day. He was often injured. He went through years of monotonous workouts as he recovered from Tommy John surgery in 2015. He kept a similar routine when he returned to New York's rotation.
Until he didn't.
'I don't know why I stopped doing it,' Wheeler said. 'Maybe it's just because I didn't want to. Or because I just wanted to switch something up. And I started having more success. If you think about it, man, we're out there doing our upper-body workout 90 to 100 times — if not more between the bullpen and warm-up pitches. That's a core workout. That's a back workout. It's a shoulder workout.'
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People in the Phillies organization can attest to this: No one is more diligent about his arm care between starts than Wheeler. He might be the player closest to Paul Buchheit, the club's head athletic trainer who was recently promoted to director of medical services. Buchheit and Wheeler, who signed a five-year contract, came to Philadelphia at almost the same time in December 2019. He wanted to hear Buchheit's ideas.
With the Mets, Wheeler had iced his arm after every bullpen session and start. It was his routine. Buchheit told Wheeler to stop. Wheeler adjusted it, saw no negative effects, and then asked Buchheit for more tips. He now does forearm treatment every day. He does shoulder work two or three times between starts. He'll have frequent soft-tissue treatments.
The older a player is, the more off-the-field work he must typically do to remain at peak performance. That is not Wheeler.
'Probably,' Wheeler said, 'working smarter.'
Realmuto is in the weight room more than anyone. The rare moments he sees Wheeler, he has to comment. Zack, don't hurt yourself. What are you doing in here? This is not your place.
'He just laughs it off,' Realmuto said. 'I've seen him in there a handful of times. Never sweating.'
'There's a time and a place,' reliever Matt Strahm said.
'I try to get him to work out every day with me,' right-hander Taijuan Walker said. 'He's just a rare breed.'
Walker has seen it before. Some starters have innate natural talent. In Seattle, he was teammates with Félix Hernández, who did it his way. But Hernández faded by his 30s and was finished before he turned 34.
There are no recent parallels in Philadelphia. By 35, Roy Halladay was in steep decline. Cliff Lee made his final start a month before his 35th birthday. Cole Hamels was in his final full season. No Phillies starter 35 or older has posted a sub-3.00 ERA in a season since Steve Carlton in 1981.
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The Phillies, Wheeler said, have allowed him to understand how his body moves — and why it correlates to what he does on the mound. 'I've always been a loose guy,' Wheeler said. He evolved his routine between starts. He kept throwing hard.
'If it works for him,' Thomson said, 'why work?'
Wheeler's general disdain for pregame planning meetings is mythical inside the Phillies clubhouse. Some pitchers spend hours studying video and reviewing scouting reports. Wheeler has come to understand this is one piece he can eliminate. He cannot do it better than Realmuto and Cotham. Why try?
It was 2021. The Phillies went to Tropicana Field in late May, not eight months removed from Randy Arozarena's 10-homer postseason that powered the Tampa Bay Rays to the American League pennant. Arozarena was leading off against the Phillies, so that is how the meeting began. Wheeler, per usual, was on the training table while everyone else spoke.
'All right, Arozarena, we want to do this,' Cotham said. 'This is how we want to attack him.'
Pause.
'Is he right-handed or left-handed?' Wheeler asked.
'Dude,' Realmuto said. 'What?'
Wheeler struck out Arozarena all three times — on three different pitches — that day.
Wheeler knows how all of this sounds — like he's lazy. Like he wants everyone off his lawn. Like all of this has come easy to him. This is a pitcher who, seven years ago, was demoted to Triple A at the end of spring training because the Mets were tired of his mediocre outings. He's since pitched the second-most innings in MLB and twice finished as the runner-up in National League Cy Young Award voting.
Among pitchers with 10 career postseason starts, Wheeler's 2.18 ERA ranks fourth. He did not throw a pitch in the postseason until he was 32.
'The best part of him is the dynamic nature of how he can handle a game,' Cotham said. 'Keep it simple. No panic. But there's a lot of attention to detail.'
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It's that straight face. Wheeler doesn't want people to know certain things.
Wheeler is a visual learner. Cotham is adept at showing Wheeler the effect of hand placement on certain pitches. Wheeler can now better manipulate the baseball. And, when something is not working the way Wheeler expects, Cotham brings a laptop to his ace. They dissect movements.
'You can look at videos side-by-side and you can't see a difference,' Wheeler said. 'But you look at the stick figure —'
Is Zack Wheeler into biomechanics?
'Yeah,' Wheeler said. 'I'm into biomechanics.'
Pitch design? Wheeler would never, ever call it that. But two years ago, he asked Cotham to search for a new offering to improve his results against lefty hitters. Cotham suggested a splitter. Sure, Wheeler said. He started throwing it in 2024. It's now one of the best splitters any big-league starter throws.
Wheeler swears this happened: He threw a weighted ball over the winter. 'I kill workouts during the offseason,' Wheeler said. 'I do upper body, lower body. I probably did more upper body this offseason than I ever have.' He knows what his body needs and when.
The man who is steadfast in there being only one way to order Chick-fil-A has a private chef.
'I mean, I eat healthy,' Wheeler said. 'Like, when I'm at home. My chef uses no fake stuff in the food. She uses syrup instead of sugar to make stuff sweet.'
At the ballpark, he can be who he wants.
There is Offseason Wheeler; he is not to be disturbed. Coaches are aware. Wheeler will not return text messages. His teammates love him but know he won't join them on golf outings. Team dinners? Maybe. Probably not.
Wheeler protects his time with his family.
'He checks out to check in,' Cotham said. 'So, he's very good at baseball. He loves pitching. He loves competing. He's also really good at: When he's home, he's home. The ability to check out and be present there helps you be present here.'
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Wheeler is unequivocal: When this $126 million contract expires at the end of the 2027 season, he is done with baseball. He has four kids at home who need a dad. He stares whenever anyone questions that.
'I mean, he can say all he wants,' Realmuto said. 'I can't imagine him dominating for two more years and hanging them up. He loves it. … I'm holding out hope that he keeps pitching.'
Cotham always talks about cost when he talks about Wheeler. The cost of intervening is high; if someone comes to Wheeler with a tweak, it must be smart. Wheeler's time and energy cannot be wasted. That is the cost of greatness; the bar is so high every fifth or sixth day. The game matters above all else.
Wheeler only has so much to give. So, two and a half more seasons.
'That's the plan,' he said.
That has to change if he keeps pitching like this.
'Doesn't matter,' Wheeler said. 'No.'
A few minutes later, outfielder Brandon Marsh walked past Wheeler. The pitcher made a straight-faced joke. He loves this. He is the oldest guy in the room who has discovered this rare nirvana. No one is clear-minded enough to leave this behind.
'Nah,' Wheeler said. 'It'll be easy to walk away.'
(Illustration: Kelsea Petersen / The Athletic; Mitchell Leff / Getty Images)