Phillies ace Zack Wheeler says IL stint is to ‘play it safe’ and help him ‘be strong for the long road’

Right-handed pitcher Zack Wheeler came out of his start on Aug. 20 with a little bit of soreness in his forearm. Initially, he was planning to pitch Friday night against the Pirates, but told reporters on Friday afternoon that the Phillies talked him out of it, and that he believes that taking off his next two starts is “smart thing to do.”

Wheeler will take 3-5 days off from pitching. He said he’ll go on the road with the Phillies for their upcoming trip to Arizona and San Francisco and get some treatment and workouts in. He plans to throw two bullpens before his next scheduled start on Sept. 6 against Miami, assuming all goes well.

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This is not a new phenomenon for Wheeler. He said he’s experienced some form of forearm tendinitis earlier this season, last season (when he came in second in NL Cy Young Award voting), and in 2014, 2015, and 2016. Normally, he pitches through it, but believe if he takes these two starts off, he’ll come back even stronger.

“I think Dave (Dombrowski) said it pretty well yesterday,” Wheeler said. “It was kind of, I guess, the right time to do it. I just feel a little fatigued, or whatever you want to call it, and I would rather be strong for the remainder of the season than try to gut it out right now and maybe not have my best stuff. So I think it’s the smart thing to do right now.”

Wheeler said recently that he’s felt as good — physically and mechanically — as he has this season after his last two starts.

“Maybe it’s just from throwing a little harder or more conviction behind it, longer release point, I don’t know,” Wheeler said when asked how to reconcile those two starts with his IL stint. “But I was just getting back to my old self. I’ve dealt with this before throughout the season, it’s just a little bit more than before. So, I think like Dave said, it’s that time where you could use a little bit of rest. Play it safe and just be strong for the long road instead of right now.”

Wheeler said that in the past, tendinitis hasn’t hampered him; it just causes soreness in between starts. Left-handed pitcher Bailey Falter will start Friday in Wheeler’s absence.

“We just wanted to knock it out of there, make sure it’s not going to be a long-term thing,” said interim manager Rob Thomson. “It’s not going to affect him down the stretch. We’ll knock it out and be better than ever.”

Reliever Seranthony Domínguez was doing plyometrics on Friday afternoon, according to Thomson. The team will re-evaluate Domínguez tonight to see when he can start to throw.