Phillies ace Zack Wheeler still has soreness in his injured right elbow, manager Rob Thompson says

SAN FRANCISCO — Pump the brakes on Zack Wheeler’s return to the mound.

Wheeler will neither throw a bullpen session this weekend, as expected, nor start next week at Citizens Bank Park. The Phillies ace reported lingering soreness in his right elbow, interim manager Rob Thomson revealed Friday, and went for an MRI that showed inflammation. Wheeler will be re-evaluated early next week.

“There’s nothing, no structural [damage],” Thomson said before the Phillies opened a three-game series against the San Francisco Giants. “It’s just a little bit of inflammation in [the elbow]. So, we’re just going to back him off. We’ll wait until that gets out of there and until he’s comfortable, and then we’ll go.”

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Wheeler, who tried to talk the Phillies out of putting him on the injured list on Aug. 25, didn’t make himself available for comment.

The Phillies initially described Wheeler’s injury as forearm tendinitis, an issue that he said he goes through every season. After missing two starts, he was scheduled to throw off a bullpen mound this weekend in anticipation of returning to the starting rotation next week against the Miami Marlins.

Instead, Aaron Nola will start Tuesday night, according to Thomson, followed by lefty Bailey Falter on Wednesday, assuming Falter gets through a between-starts bullpen session without a recurrence of the right groin discomfort that forced him to leave early from a start Wednesday night in Arizona. Falter has allowed five earned runs in 18⅓ innings over his last three starts for a 2.45 ERA.

Wheeler has a 3.07 ERA in 138 innings over 23 starts. He gave up 10 runs in 11⅓ innings in his last two starts, both against the New York Mets. He led the majors with 213⅓ innings last season and finished second to Milwaukee’s Corbin Burnes in the National League Cy Young Award balloting.

Thomson maintained that he remains unconcerned about Wheeler, even while acknowledging that the right-hander isn’t likely to get on a mound until late next week, at the earliest. And the longer it takes for Wheeler to be ready to throw a bullpen session, the more likely it becomes that he will need to make a minor league start before rejoining the Phillies’ rotation. The Phillies have 30 games left after Friday night.

“I’m sure if this was a playoff game, he’d say, ‘Give me the ball,’” Thomson said. “It’s still there, just a little bit, so we’ll take precautions.”

Once considered a long shot to return this season, right-hander Zach Eflin cleared another hurdle by simulating two innings off a bullpen mound.

“The past week has been incredible,” said Eflin, who hasn’t pitched since June 25 because of patellar soreness in his surgically repaired right knee. “I’ve been optimistic every single day. The first bullpen I had went much better than I thought it would go. Today went much better than I thought it would go. I feel like I’m finally in a really good spot to get back out there and compete.”

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If Eflin returns, it would be as a reliever. He likely will throw another bullpen session in a few days and could progress to a minor league assignment.

Nick Castellanos returned to the lineup in right field after a three-game absence with turf toe. ... Relief ace Seranthony Domínguez is slated to throw off a bullpen mound Saturday. He hasn’t pitched since Aug. 17 because of what the Phillies have termed triceps tendinitis. ... Former Phillies catcher Andrew Knapp was in the lineup for the Giants, who called up him from triple A this week. ... The Phillies won the rookie-level Dominican Summer League title with a 7-3 victory Thursday in Game 3 against the Rockies. ... Noah Syndergaard (8-9, 3.98 ERA) is scheduled to start Saturday against Giants right-hander Jakob Junis (4-4, 4.04).