Philadelphia Phillies: Zack Wheeler is proving his worth in 2020

The Philadelphia Phillies decision to give $100+ million dollars to Zack Wheeler this past offseason is proving to be worth every penny.

Back on December 9th of last year, the Philadelphia Phillies agreed to a five-year $118 million dollar contract with free agent starting pitcher Zack Wheeler. At the time, many were unsure if this was the right move. Wheeler had proven to be a guy with big time stuff, but he had always seemed to struggle with health and consistency. While the jury is still out, Wheeler is proving his worth with each passing start.

So far this season, the right-hander has made five starts, tossing 32 innings while posting a record of 3-0 with an era of 2.76. He also has the highest WAR on the team so far at 1.6. The strangest thing is while his walks per nine (1.7) are the lowest of his career, so are his strikeouts per nine (5.5). While there is no way I believe his strikeout totals will remain so low, what it does say to me is how efficient he has been this year.

To be able to pitch as well as he has with his strikeout totals being so low just shows all the weak contact he is inducing. It makes you wonder what this “could” be once his strikeout totals return to the norm.

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When you look at the big money contracts handed out to starting pitchers last winter, you could make the argument Zack Wheeler gave the best “value”. Now this isn’t to say he is a better pitcher than Gerrit Cole (nine years $324 million), but is the difference between the two really $206 million dollars?

I would say probably not.

How about Dallas Keuchel (three years $55.5 million) or Hyun-Jin Ryu (four years $80 million)? Madison Bumgarner (five years $85 million)? I’d say Wheeler has shown to be more valuable than all of those arms so far.

As a longtime member of the New York Mets, Wheeler had always seemed to dominate the Philadelphia Phillies. Across 15 career starts against his current team, “Wheels” went 5-3 with an ERA of 3.30. It seemed like at least once a year, he was due for an outing against the Phils’ where he posted seven shutout innings to go with double digit strikeouts. If those numbers are what pushed the front office to bring in the former division rival, then good thing they happened.

With the way Wheeler has been throwing the baseball this year, along with his rotation mate Aaron Nola’s return to dominance, the Philadelphia Phillies have one of the best 1-2 punches in all of baseball. While this hasn’t fully translated to success for the ball club, it is still encouraging that both of their horses at the top have been as good as they have. If the ball club is able to qualify for the postseason, having Nola and Wheeler in a short series is not something teams will be looking forward to seeing.

With 36 games to go, the Phils’ currently sit 10-14 on the year, 2.0 games out of a playoff spot. Things have been really ugly at times, but the postseason is still within grasp.

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While the next few weeks are filled with uncertainty, there is one thing that is for sure. Wheeler was undoubtedly worth every penny.

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