Zack Wheeler’s status is the biggest story in a Phillies camp headlined by Kyle Schwarber, Nick Castellanos

The newly signed Phillies sluggers will dominate the news cycle over the next few days. But don't take your eyes off the team's best pitcher.

Phillies pitcher Zack Wheeler, who has been behind others in camp because of offseason shoulder soreness and the flu this week, threw a bullpen session Sunday.Read moreJOSE F. MORENO / Staff Photographer

by Scott Lauber

Published March 20, 2022, 3:15 p.m. ET

CLEARWATER, Fla. — Kyle Schwarber got into town Sunday, chose No. 12, and took a few hacks in a batting cage hidden from public view. Nick Castellanos will be here by the middle of the week. There will be news conferences and photo ops with jerseys and runaway optimism over how many home runs a slugger-filled Phillies lineup can possibly hit.

“What an awesome experience we’re about to have this year,” Bryce Harper said, and maybe he will prove to be correct.

But there are also certain facts about the Phillies that are undisputed, none more than this: No amount of offense will fulfill their mission of snapping a decadelong absence from the postseason if Zack Wheeler is unable to pitch every five days for the next six months.

And so it went, at 9 o’clock sharp Sunday, that pitching coach Caleb Cotham, president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski (clad in a red pullover and blue shorts after coming straight from his morning workout), bullpen coach Dave Lundquist, and manager Joe Girardi walked single file behind Wheeler to the bullpen mounds hard by a side entrance to the clubhouse, where J.T. Realmuto was already waiting to catch the 35 most important pitches thrown all week by any Phillies pitcher.

Everyone agreed that it went well. Or at least as well as it could have gone considering Wheeler came down with what the Phillies characterized as the flu and spent four days last week away from teammates. They were already taking it slow-ish with the National League Cy Young runner-up.

Wheeler led the majors last season with 213⅓ innings and was monitored closely down the stretch, with the Phillies allowing him to throw 100 pitches once in his last six starts. He halted his throwing program in December because of right shoulder soreness, which he disclosed to the team once the owner-imposed lockout ended on March 10.

Team officials insist, and Wheeler agrees, that the shoulder issue is behind him now. Even so, with a compressed spring training, the question is amplified: Is there enough time for him to be ready for his first turn in the starting rotation?

“Yeah, that’s the goal,” Wheeler said after a brief post-bullpen huddle with Realmuto. “If everything goes like it is right now, we should be good to go.”

There’s been a cloak-and-dagger aspect to all of this. Girardi made clear that Wheeler had the flu, not COVID-19, but the Phillies were concerned enough about him passing it on that they told him to stay away from the facility. Wheeler wasn’t so sick, though, that he couldn’t throw from a mound twice at an offsite location.

“I wasn’t feeling bad at all, really,” he said. “I was able to get out there and basically do what I needed to do in here.”

Asked who caught his bullpen sessions, Wheeler said, “A friend.”

Someone from the Phillies?

“A friend,” Wheeler repeated.

OK then.

It won’t matter in the end if Wheeler breaks camp with the team on April 6 or winds up only a start or two behind the others in the rotation.

An ordinary six-week spring training would allow plenty of time for him to catch up. But the calendar is unforgiving this year. The Phillies are eight days into a 25-day camp. Opening day is less than three weeks away. And the Phillies play 13 consecutive days before their first day off.

Wheeler said the plan calls for him to throw another bullpen session, likely on Tuesday, then live batting practice before getting into a game. For context, fellow starters Aaron Nola and Kyle Gibson will have probably made two spring-training starts by then.

Girardi won’t rule out Wheeler from pitching in the season’s first week. But it may hinge on whether Major League Baseball allows teams to open with expanded rosters. The commissioner’s office is toying with the idea as mitigation for a potential spike in injuries because of the shorter build-up. If the Phillies are allowed to carry an extra pitcher, they could shorten Wheeler’s first few starts by bringing in a multi-inning reliever behind him.

“Maybe you could piggyback two guys,” Girardi said. “There’s a lot of things we could consider.”

Such details usually qualify as baseball minutiae. Not when it comes to Wheeler.

The Phillies signed him to a five-year, $118 million contract in December 2019, and he’s been worth every cent. Over the last two seasons, he leads the majors in innings (284⅓) and ranks eighth in strikeouts (300). Among 167 pitchers who have logged at least 100 innings since 2020, he’s 13th in ERA (2.82) and fourth in fielding independent pitching (2.75).

In short, the Phillies can’t win without him, no matter how many home runs Schwarber and Castellanos add to an offense led by Harper and sidekicks Realmuto and Rhys Hoskins.

Stay tuned, then, for Wheeler’s next bullpen session, which almost certainly will draw as much interest as Sunday’s did.

“I was a little behind, but we’re on a good path right now,” Wheeler said. “Hopefully we just continue that.”