Phillies place Zack Wheeler on 15-day IL with forearm tendinitis

On a day full of mostly positive injury news, especially Bryce Harper’s return, the Phillies suffered yet another setback, as right-handed starter Zack Wheeler was placed on the 15-day injured list (retroactive to Sunday) with right forearm tendinitis. Left-handed pitcher Bailey Falter will start in Wheeler’s absence on Friday against the Pirates.

Phillies president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski said Wheeler will miss his next two starts. He’ll be eligible to come off the injured list on Sept. 6, when the Phillies are scheduled to play the Marlins at home.

» READ MORE: Bryce Harper will return to the Phillies on Friday vs. Pirates

Wheeler was coming off of two bumpy starts against the Mets, in which he allowed 10 earned runs over 11⅓ innings, but said after both starts that he’d felt as well as he had all season. Wheeler has a 3.07 ERA through 138 innings this season with 148 strikeouts.

“I can’t say this has anything to do with his last two outings, no,” Dombrowski said. “The way I describe it is more, you get to this time of year, with about any player or pitcher, and there is something that they’re not 100%. I mean, I’ve dealt with Zack for a couple of years, and just like a lot of guys, he’s dealt with some of these issues last year. So it’s one of those things. It’s one of those things that pitchers deal with, and that’s how I would describe this, more so he’s been dealing with this as how probably every pitcher on our staff has been dealing with something.

“Today, it’s been one of those that over the last little time period that he’s … maybe bothered him a little more. He felt by all means that he could take the ball [Friday]. But when we talked about it, we also felt that we much rather knock this thing out and not have him go out there and continue to deal with this the rest of the season. So, for us, when we sat in the office today, it was I can do it, but we just think sometimes you have to take it out of the person’s hands and just think it’s best to shut this down right now.”

This news comes at a tough time for the Phillies, who are in the midst of a tight wild-card race. Wheeler is the second Phillies starter to hit the injured list. Zach Eflin was placed on the 15-day injured list with a right knee bruise on June 28 (retroactive to June 26) and could be out for the rest of the season.

To complicate matters further, the Phillies are down two relievers, Seranthony Domínguez and Corey Knebel, which heightens their need for length from their starters. Knebel is out for the season with a right lat strain, and Domínguez is on the 15-day injured list with right triceps tendinitis.

Dombrowski said Wheeler has not gotten an MRI. He compared the team’s decision to shut Wheeler down for two starts to the Phillies’ choice to shut Ranger Suárez down from July 3 (retroactive to June 30) with low back spasm. Suárez was activated off the injured list on July 16 and has a 1.54 ERA over seven starts since then.

» READ MORE: Phillies’ Brandon Marsh to rehab at Lehigh Valley, could return as soon as Saturday

Dombrowski wouldn’t get into how long Wheeler has been actively treated for this particular issue.

“These guys are treated for this all the time,” he said. “He might have been treated for this all year long, for all I know. All last year, too. That’s why it’s not one of those things that boom, it just cropped up, out of the blue. It’s been there, just like it has been with a lot of guys. Maybe it’s a little more now — I can go out there, I can pitch, I can do this — but you know, let’s just take it out of your hands. I think that’s the wise thing to do at this point.

“And he’s not happy. I mean, I think he would have rather taken the ball. But he also understands it’s probably the wise thing to do for him.”

“You want a guy like Zack Wheeler around all the time,” interim manager Rob Thomson said of the injury. “But he came out of his last start and was a little sore and we thought we’d knock it out. And it was trending better but it’s still not all the way out, so just a precaution.”