Phillies Zack Wheeler Ranks Among Games Best Right Handed Starting Pitchers

The Philadelphia Phillies (69-49) enter Tuesday with the second-best combined starting pitcher ERA in MLB at 3.47. While the rotation as a whole has been dominant for most of this season, there has been one starter that has outpaced the others, ace Zack Wheeler .

In a recent article from Bleacher Report, Joel Reuter ranked the game's best players at each position right now. Reuter divides starting pitchers between left-handed and right-handed. After ranking as the fifth-best right-handed starting pitcher last month, Wheeler now ranks second.

Wheeler signed with the Phillies in free agency after the 2019 season. The Phillies were taking a chance on Wheeler, who struggled with injuries for most of his first four seasons in MLB, including missing 2015 entirely. 2018 and 2019 were different, however, as he made 29 starts in 2018 and 31 in 2019.

In his four seasons with the Phillies before 2024, Wheeler made 101 starts, pitching 629 1/3 innings with 675 strikeouts and a 137 ERA+. He firmly cemented himself as the Phillies ace in that time, while also getting his first All-Star nod, winning a Gold Glove, and finishing as the runner-up for the National League Cy Young Award in 2021.

This season has been much of the same for the veteran. Through 23 starts, Wheeler has a 2.78 ERA across 142 2/3 innings with 156 strikeouts and a 147 ERA+. He has been a frontrunner for the National League Cy Young Award since the season began.

The Phillies may have been taking a chance when they signed Wheeler in 2019, but that chance has paid off in spades as Wheeler has become one of the best pitchers in the sport today.