{"id":105965,"date":"2025-08-16T19:53:05","date_gmt":"2025-08-16T23:53:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/?p=105965"},"modified":"2025-08-16T19:53:05","modified_gmt":"2025-08-16T23:53:05","slug":"phillies-pitcher-zack-wheeler-injured-list-blood-clot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2025\/08\/16\/phillies-pitcher-zack-wheeler-injured-list-blood-clot\/","title":{"rendered":"Phillies Ace Placed on Injured List with Blood Clot"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Philadelphia Phillies announced that pitcher <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/w\/wheelza01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-08-16_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Zack Wheeler<\/a> is going on the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/6557719\/2025\/08\/16\/phillies-zack-wheeler-injury-blood-clot\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">15-day injured list<\/a> because of a blood clot. According to the team, the blood clot is in the right upper extremity. There is no timetable for Wheeler&#8217;s return. Hopefully, this is not a serious blood clot. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/n\/nolaaa01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-08-16_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Aaron Nola<\/a> is returning from the injured list on August 17 and will presumably fill the open 26-man roster spot. This also means that the Phillies will not be <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2025\/08\/14\/phillies-moving-six-man-rotation\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">utilizing a six-man rotation<\/a> following the return of Nola, as was originally planned.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_86770\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-86770\" style=\"width: 468px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-86770\" src=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2024\/09\/USATSI_24349647-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"468\" height=\"312\" srcset=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2024\/09\/USATSI_24349647-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2024\/09\/USATSI_24349647-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2024\/09\/USATSI_24349647-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2024\/09\/USATSI_24349647-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2024\/09\/USATSI_24349647-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2024\/09\/USATSI_24349647-600x400.jpg 600w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2024\/09\/USATSI_24349647-1200x800.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 468px) 100vw, 468px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-86770\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sep 28, 2024; Washington, District of Columbia, USA; Philadelphia Phillies starting pitcher Zack Wheeler (45) pitches against the Washington Nationals during the first inning at Nationals Park. Mandatory Credit: Geoff Burke-Imagn Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h2>Phillies Place Zack Wheeler On Injured List with Blood Clot<\/h2>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Following today\u2019s game, the Phillies placed right-hander pitcher Zack Wheeler on the 15-day injured list with a Right Upper Extremity Blood Clot.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Philadelphia Phillies (@Phillies) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Phillies\/status\/1956849332214550786?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">August 16, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Wheeler has a 10-5 record with a 2.71 ERA in 24 starts this season, along with a 2.98 FIP, a 5.91 K\/BB rate, and a 0.94 WHIP. This year, Wheeler has a career-best 33.3% strikeout rate in addition to a 5.6% walk rate. He also has a 1.14 HR\/9 allowed rate and a 14.2% HR\/FB allowed rate this year. Wheeler has a career best 82.4% left-on-base percentage and 63 ERA- this year. This season, Wheeler has recorded 16 quality starts.<\/p>\n<h3>Impact on the Starting Rotation<\/h3>\n<p>The absence of Wheeler will mean others in the rotation need to step up. Nola had a <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2025\/04\/24\/phillies-starting-pitcher-aaron-nola-struggling-early\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">slow start<\/a> to the season and is coming off a stint on the IL himself. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/s\/suarera01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-08-16_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Ranger Su\u00e1rez<\/a> has struggled as of late after a great start to the year. Meanwhile, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/s\/sanchcr01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-08-16_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Cristopher S\u00e1nchez<\/a> was robbed of an All-Star nod and has had a National League <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/y\/youngcy01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-08-16_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Cy Young<\/a> Award-worthy season. For his part, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/w\/walketa01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-08-16_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Taijuan Walker<\/a> has stepped up in recent weeks while filling in for Nola. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/l\/luzarje01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-08-16_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jes\u00fas Luzardo<\/a> has had an up-and-down season. Across the board, everyone will need to step up to fill the large void in the Phillies&#8217; starting rotation. The Phillies currently hold a five-game lead in the NL East. While this is a big setback for Philadelphia, there is still baseball to be played.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Main Photo Credit: Eric Hartline-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Philadelphia Phillies announced that pitcher Zack Wheeler is going on the 15-day injured list because of a blood clot. According to the team, the blood clot is in the right upper extremity. There is no timetable for Wheeler&#8217;s return. Hopefully, this is not a serious blood clot. Aaron Nola is returning from the injured [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4566,"featured_media":87767,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[23,1071,35],"tags":[1069,28573,3425,3009,701,683],"class_list":["post-105965","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-phillies","category-mlb","category-news","tag-aaron-nola","tag-cristopher-sanchez","tag-jesus-luzardo","tag-ranger-suarez","tag-taijuan-walker","tag-zack-wheeler"],"modified_by":"Lewis Masella, Site Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105965","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4566"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=105965"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105965\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":105968,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105965\/revisions\/105968"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/87767"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=105965"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=105965"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=105965"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}