Zack Wheeler will start on opening day for the Phillies, Rob Thomson says

Aaron Nola made six consecutive opening-day starts, but now it's Wheeler's turn. “He’s earned it, man,” Nola said earlier this month.

Zack Wheeler will make his first opening-day start for the Phillies.Read moreHeather Khalifa / Staff Photographer

by Scott Lauber

Published March 17, 2024, 6:59 p.m. ET

CLEARWATER, Fla. — Shortly before he took the mound Sunday for his second-to-last start of spring training, Zack Wheeler met with Phillies manager Rob Thomson.

“Hey,” Thomson said, “you’re starting opening day. I’m announcing it today.”

“OK,” Wheeler said.

And that was that. No muss, no fuss.

No dramatic torch-passing, either.

OK, so in the end, it probably shouldn’t have come as a surprise. Aaron Nola made six consecutive opening-day starts, the longest streak by a Phillies pitcher since Steve Carlton started 10 in a row from 1977 to 1986. Nola is back, too, having re-signed in November after being wooed in free agency by the archrival Braves, who happen to be the opponent on March 28 at Citizens Bank Park.

But even Nola said that Wheeler merits the opening-day nod because, well, in his words, “He’s earned it, man.” Care to argue? Since 2020, Wheeler has a 3.06 ERA and leads all pitchers in wins above replacement, based on Baseball-Reference (19.6) and Fangraphs (19.3).

And then there’s this: Next year, Wheeler will begin making the highest annual salary in Phillies history — $42 million — after recently signing a three-year, $126 million contract extension.

With a historic contract comes greater responsibility. So even if starting the first game of the season instead of the second is largely ceremonial, the symbolism is notable.

“It’s special,” Wheeler said. “It’s a pretty cool honor. [Nola] has done it for how many years? Six years in a row. It was a pretty cool thing going.”

For Wheeler, it will be a first. He started Game 1 of the Phillies’ wild-card series in the last two postseasons, defeating the Cardinals on the road in 2022 and the Marlins at home last year. But he hasn’t started opening day.

There wasn’t much deliberation for Thomson, who said two weeks ago that he was fairly certain who would throw the first pitch of the season. But he also spoke with Nola to inform him of the decision.

Nola, who has become close friends with Wheeler, told Thomson the same thing that he said publicly.

“He said it didn’t really matter to him,” Thomson said. “That’s who Aaron is. He’s a great team guy, and he felt like Wheels deserved it. So, that’s where we went.”

Wheeler has had a businesslike spring training, and not only because the business of his contract extension got settled quickly.

Since returning from a three-day paternity leave after the birth of his third child on Feb. 27, Wheeler has made three Grapefruit League starts. He got through four innings and reached 60 pitches Sunday against the Blue Jays, allowing little more than a first-pitch homer to Joey Votto in the first inning.

Last year, Wheeler added a sweeper, the variation of a slider that has become trendy throughout baseball. This spring, he’s working on a splitter to make him tougher against left-handed hitters. He threw five splitters against the Jays and was pleased with the pitch’s progress.

”It’s good,” Wheeler said. “Pulled a couple, but they still had good movement on them. Might not be consistent every time. It’s to be expected. It’s a new pitch for me. But as long as it has movement either way it’s going, and the velo difference, I’m perfectly fine right now.”

Has he perfected it enough to break it out on opening day?

“It’s here to stay,” Wheeler said. “I might not throw it as much as we have been. J.T. [Realmuto] is calling it a lot more now where normally he would call on maybe a curveball or something like that. But it’s spring training. It’s where you work on stuff.”

Wheeler will make one more spring-training start, likely on Friday against the Tigers or Saturday against the Yankees. After that, the next time he takes the ball will be in Philadelphia against the Braves.

And although the naming of an opening-day starter is a far less dramatic event in spring training than most people realize, Wheeler understands the significance. He also knows it’s part of joining Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander in the $40 million per year pitcher’s club — non-Shohei Ohtani division.

“There’s definitely pressure, especially being in Philadelphia,” Wheeler said. “It’s a tough place to play. Coming from New York, also a tough place to play, you’re going to have your ups and downs. You’ll have your bad games, bad innings. You might get booed here and there, booed off the field. But it’s part of the game. You take that in and use that as motivation and just try to build off of that because you don’t want that to happen again.

“So, there is pressure to live up to the contract. But if you take care of what you need to, hopefully it will take care of itself on the field in the performance.”

It just begins now on opening day.