Zack Wheeler is in his fifth season with the Phillies. (Photo by Jeff Robinson/Icon Sportswire) Like every other Philadelphia Phillies starting pitcher, Zack Wheeler is off to a great start this year. After tossing six scoreless innings on Thursday, the veteran right-hander lowered his ERA on the year to 1.93. Across his six starts, Wheeler has struck out 46 batters in 37 1/3 innings. His 1.3 fWAR entering Friday leads Major League Baseball among pitchers. It’s no surprise Wheeler is off to a strong start. Since joining the Phillies, he’s transformed into one of the best pitchers in baseball ..read more

Bryce Harper homered on Thursday. (Zac BonDurant/Icon Sportswire) Phillies star first baseman Bryce Harper officially made an amusing one-off story a trend on Thursday afternoon as he homered in his first game back off the paternity list for the second time in his career. After missing the first three games of the series for the birth of his third child and second daughter, Harper crushed a hanging changeup for a two-run home run as part of a third-inning rally that helped carry Philadelphia to a 5-0 victory and a four-game series split against the Reds at Great American Ball Park. Welcome B ..read more

Zack Wheeler threw six shutout innings on Thursday. (Photo by Keith Gillett/Icon Sportswire) Final score: Phillies 5, Reds 0 The Phillies needed a mini-stopper of sorts after two uncharacteristically sloppy losses in Cincinnati followed their seven-game winning streak. These days, it’s not hard to choose a stopper in the club’s starting rotation — everyone has been a stopper — but it’s hard to argue against Zack Wheeler as a leading candidate. Wheeler was that mini-stopper on Thursday, shutting down the Reds through six scoreless innings of one-hit ball. It wasn’t always easy for the Phillies ..read more

Taijuan Walker is in his second season with the Phillies. (Brian Rothmuller/Icon Sportswire) Taijuan Walker will return to the Philadelphia Phillies starting rotation Sunday at Petco Park against the San Diego Padres. But it can be argued that the 31-year-old is in a no-win situation. Of course, regardless of how Walker pitches, he’ll make $18 million in 2024. And then again in 2025. And 2026. We should all be so unlucky. But the belief is that with Walker returning from a shoulder injury, Spencer Turnbull — he of the 1.33 ERA, the second-lowest mark among starters in the National League — wil ..read more

Robert Stephenson pitched for the Rays in 2023. (Photo by Brian Rothmuller/Icon Sportswire) The epidemic of pitcher injuries has hit a prior Phillies offseason target. Robert Stephenson, whom the club targeted this January, is getting Tommy John surgery and will miss the remainder of this season — plus the start of the next. Stephenson, who signed a three-year, $33 million contract with the Angels, didn’t make an appearance for Los Angeles this regular season. He began feeling pain in his elbow while rehabbing a shoulder injury, his only appearance of the year, and the UCL damage will cost him ..read more

Seranthony Domínguez took the loss Wednesday. (Brian Rothmuller/Icon Sportswire) Final score: Reds 7, Phillies 4 A sixth-inning collapse from right-hander Seranthony Domínguez and the Phillies bullpen wasted a tremendous performance at the plate from first baseman Alec Bohm and another strong outing from starting pitcher Spencer Turnbull. Domínguez was charged with four earned runs in 2/3 of an inning as Philadelphia lost, 7-4, against the Reds at Great American Ball Park on Wednesday night. He allowed the game-tying run on a Santiago Espinal RBI single, before Matt Strahm allowed two inherite ..read more

Taijuan Walker is set to come off of the injured list this weekend. (Cheryl Pursell) Taijuan Walker (right shoulder soreness) is set to make his season debut later this week. He will make his first start with the Phillies on Sunday, April 28 against the San Diego Padres, manager Rob Thomson told reporters in Cincinnati on Tuesday, including Todd Zolecki of MLB.com. While it’s not 100% official, Walker is expected to replace Spencer Turnbull in the rotation. Turnbull will then move to the bullpen and assume a long man role. Walker starting Sunday gives Cristopher Sánchez an extra day of rest an ..read more

Embed from Getty Images Few hitters in baseball are off to better starts this season than Cleveland Guardians first baseman/DH Josh Naylor. Once upon a time, the Philadelphia Phillies nearly acquired him as a prospect. Had then done so, it might have drastically altered the future of the team. The 26-year-old is slashing .321/.387/.605 with six home runs, 20 RBIs and a .992 OPS. Back at the 2016 MLB trade deadline, the Phillies had a deal in place that would have allowed them to acquire Naylor, but a series of bizarre events prevented the deal from being completed. RHP Colin Rea was traded ..read more

Brandon Marsh and Nick Castellanos embrace Phillies center fielder Johan Rojas. (Rich von Biberstein/Icon Sportswire) The term “generational” is overused in sports talk. But it increasingly feels applicable when talking about Philadelphia Phillies center fielder Johan Rojas‘ defensive prowess. Rojas robbed Cincinnati Reds left fielder Spencer Steer of extra bases in the fourth inning of Tuesday evening’s Phillies loss at Great American Ballpark. Though he initially appeared banged up, the 23-year-old ultimately remained in the game. Here’s the catch Johan Rojas got banged up on. Still an unr ..read more

Cristopher Sanchez pitched only three innings in a loss to the Reds on Tuesday night. (Joe Robbins/Icon Sportswire) Final Score: Reds 8, Phillies 1 The Phillies’ early winning streak is no more. They scored first in the opening frame for the fifth time in the last seven games, but that was all as the scrappy Cincinnati Reds made starter Cristopher Sánchez work in an 8-1 loss that snapped the Phillies’ seven-game winning streak. The Phillies are now 15-9. A series of unfortunate events in a four-run third inning did him in. He had a runner on first with two out, threw a wild pitch that allowed ..read more