You almost don’t want to even mention it, out of fear that you’re jinxing someone’s health. But as pitchers have dropped like flies in recent days, weeks and years, the Philadelphia Phillies seem to have something special atop their rotation in terms of the durability that both Zack Wheeler and Aaron Nola have demonstrated.
Wheeler and Nola are entirely different types of pitchers. Wheeler is a traditional power pitcher who averaged 96 mph on his fastball in 2023. Nola would occasionally reach 96 mph earlier in his career, but averaged 92.9 mph on his fastball in 2023, relying more on movement and the effectiveness of the breaking pitches in his repertoire.
But despite all their differences, Wheeler and Nola share one key quality that helps explain why they both recently received lucrative contracts from the Phillies — every fifth day, they are ready to take the ball.
Since Wheeler joined the Phillies in 2020, he’s fourth among all pitchers in the sport with 648 1/3 innings pitched. Nola is first with 666 2/3 innings pitched. Sandwiched in between Wheeler and Nola are Gerrit Cole (664) and Sandy Alcántara (661). Cole, the reigning AL Cy Young Award winner, is currently on the injured list with elbow nerve inflammation. Two years after Alcántara won the NL Cy Young Award, he’ll miss the entire campaign as he recovers from Tommy John surgery.
Among the other major arms currently on the mend with elbow and shoulder injuries are Justin Verlander, Spencer Strider, Framber Valdez, Shane Bieber, Shane McClanahan, Eury Pérez and Brandon Woodruff. So as all the other major starters in the sport take turns on the injured list, what has allowed Wheeler and Nola to avoid major injuries?
“Firstly, it’s unfortunate,” Wheeler said of all the injured pitchers. “But I don’t know, I’m not a doctor. I can only assume, guys are throwing harder … we’re not meant to throw a baseball, really … so just those combos and guys are spinning stuff harder and throwing harder. I don’t know. It could be a lot of things. It could be the pitch clock contributing to it, it could not be. I don’t know.”
Wheeler, of course, hasn’t always been healthy. In March of 2015, Wheeler underwent Tommy John surgery while pitching for the New York Mets. He missed all of the 2015 season, and pitched just a single inning in 2016 at the High-A level. Even in 2017, Wheeler went 3-7 with a 5.21 ERA across 17 starts for the Mets.
Since the start of the 2018 season, though, Wheeler leads all pitchers with 28.9 WAR, per FanGraphs. Over that period, not only has he logged 1,026 regular-season innings, but also the 63 1/3 frames he’s pitched over the last two postseason runs for the Phillies. The Phillies signed Wheeler to five-year/$118 million free-agent deal prior to the 2020 season. They gave him a three-year/$126 million extension this spring. It feels like a lifetime ago that Tommy John surgery derailed three seasons of Wheeler’s career.
When Wheeler tore his UCL, he wasn’t given an exact reason why the injury occurred. He’s spoken at length about some mechanical tweaks he made post-Tommy John surgery, but it’s not as though he has stopped throwing hard. Again, you’re left to wonder why a power pitcher like Wheeler has had so much success being durable, while Walker Buehler of the Los Angeles Dodgers is working his way back from his second Tommy John surgery and the aforementioned Strider — already a veteran of Tommy John surgery — just had a season-ending internal brace procedure.
“I don’t know,” Wheeler admitted when asked why he’s stay so healthy despite logging a ton of innings and throwing at high velocities. “I had Tommy John, so I had a new ligament. I’m sure that probably helped.
“[Head athletic trainer] Paul Buchheit, ever since I’ve been here, he’s done a really nice job with me. Just trying to strengthen the shoulder, the elbow … everything in the elbow … tendons, ligaments. They have so much technology in there now that they can do certain machines that strengthen tendons and stuff like that.”
Meanwhile, since a right elbow sprain prematurely ended Nola’s 2016 season, he’s been the most reliable pitcher in the sport in terms of taking the ball every five days. His 1,249 1/3 innings pitched since the start of the 2017 season are second only to the currently-injured Cole.
Nola’s consistent availability was the biggest reason he was so coveted in free agency last winter, before he ultimately returned to the Phillies on a seven-year/$172 million deal. Nola — who will turn 31 in June — credits his routine, and willingness to be flexible with his plans as major reasons why he and Phillies pitchers in general have stayed healthier than other teams in recent years.
“Just trying to be really in tune with our routine,” Nola said. “Our throwing program … our workouts … our running … our conditioning, whatever that may be. I think the routine is obviously really big for starting pitchers. You’ve got to find your routine that works for you.
“And sometimes it will change,” Nola continued. “For me, especially sometimes it’ll change depending on if it’s a long flight and not much sleep, maybe I take a day, rather than really trying to push myself to do something if my body isn’t feeling up to it that day. So it’s just, for myself, listening to my body. And I think our whole staff does that too. I think they’re really good at it.”
Like Wheeler, Nola credited Buchheit and the training staff of the Phillies. He also pointed out how important it is that pitchers remain invested when they are away from the team, something he, Wheeler and Ranger Suárez, among others, have done.
“Our trainers are really good,” Nola said. “But I think what we do really well too is obviously we work with the trainers and strength coaches and the coaches, but on our own time, take care of ourselves. Hydration … how we’re eating … so just trying to recover as quickly as possible. Get our work in right after the game, during the week have a good throwing week, drink a lot of fluids and try to eat as best as we can.”
Phillies manager Rob Thomson also pointed to the training staff earlier this week when asked about the relative success the organization has had keeping their pitchers healthy. So what is it that the Phillies training staff is doing that has made them such an asset to some of the franchise’s most valuable employees?
“Communication is really good,” Nola said of the training staff. “And I think that’s a big part of staying healthy as a group. The communication with all the trainers, they know sometimes what doesn’t feel great on us, what we need to really tune up real quick before we go out … what we really need to hone in on that day or that week to be feeling good on that fifth day or whenever that may be to go out and pitch. They’re really good at that and they are really good at communicating, which I think is a really big part of it.”
It shouldn’t stop teams from trying, but the reality here is that there isn’t going to be a perfect solution that guarantees pitchers stay healthy.
Is it good for your elbow to throw a 99 mph fastball or a sweeper? No, but good luck trying to tell a pitcher who can do it at a high level that they shouldn’t.
Is the pitch clock contributing to the rash of recent injuries? There’s not enough data to be able to make a reliable claim either way, but the increased pace-of-play and shorter game times have been received so well by fans that it may not matter. The pitch clock isn’t going anywhere.
The model that the Phillies training staff has developed — and certainly will continue to expand on — is the closest thing to a success story there is in the sport today. And there’s confidence that whatever medical advances are made in the fight to keep the best pitchers on the mound, money won’t be an object for the Phillies.
“Like I said, technology keeps developing where we’re able to get new stuff in and that’s where [managing partner] John [Middleton] steps in and he’s opened up his checkbook to help us off the field and to help us on the field,” Wheeler said.
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