Philadelphia Phillies: 1 biggest disappointment of the season so far

The Philadelphia Phillies are excruciatingly average. Their offense has actually been pretty good even though they’ve taken some nights off from hitting entirely and spent other evenings scoring as much as possible.

In an attempt to find why this team is fighting for a .500 record, a quick look at the numbers shows a decent pitching staff, a starting lineup with numbers measuring up close to what a team should have at this point of the season, and a bullpen that hasn’t been the Achilles heel.

There is one performance that stands out as the most disappointing of all. It’s not Kyle Schwarber’s average. It’s what we’ve seen from Zack Wheeler this season.

Zack Wheeler has been the biggest Philadelphia Phillies disappointment of 2022.

Zack Wheeler didn’t make his Phillies debut until the fifth game of the year due to an ailing injury which pushed him aside for a few games to begin the year. Last year’s Cy Young runner-up has made four start. The results aren’t anything like this team needs.

Tied with a 1-3 record with Aaron Nola, it’s Wheeler whose 5.79 ERA which separates him from the team’s Opening Day starter and once co-ace of the staff.

Wheeler was solid in his season debut against his former New York Mets team but limited to only 4.2 innings. He took the loss due to a solo home run in the 2-0 game. His second start was far more egregious with Wheeler giving up 7 earned runs to the Miami Marlins in 3 innings of work. He returned for start number three with something slightly better—4 earned runs across 5 innings of work. Yet again, he was tagged with the loss.

It wasn’t until Wheeler’s fourth start of the season when he and the Phillies finally won. In their four-game sweep of the Colorado Rockies, Wheeler threw six shutout innings of one-hit baseball. He struck out 7, walked 4, and finally looked closer to his old self again.

Now 11-12, the Phillies are exactly where they’ve been for the last several years: hovering at the .500 mark. Nobody should be surprised by this. Through 23 games, the only question should be whether they’d be the 11-12 they are or the more elite-looking 12-11. Does it really make a difference?

The fact that the two best pitchers on the staff, Wheeler and Nola, have gone a combined 2-6 is a huge disappointment. If there is a positive to take from this, maybe it’s just a matter of time before they do start winning games. It’s only early May. And while this hasn’t been the great start to the season we’d all hope Wheeler would have, we should all cross our fingers and hope those early struggles were to make up for a short spring.