The latest reports indicate that Zack Wheeler will begin a formal rehab program tomorrow. This means he will see action in minor league games. If all goes well over the next few weeks, we could see Wheeler back in the rotation by September. This would be very exciting and could provide an boost to the pitching staff. While Logan Verrett has done a solid job filling in for Matt Harvey, a healthy Wheeler would be an obvious upgrade.
For those of you with short memories, Wheeler has a legitimate four-pitch repertoire, including an electric fastball that has a lot of natural movement and late life. Similar to Dwight Gooden‘s epic fastball, it seems to hop. When we lost saw Wheeler pitch at the end of 2014, he was really grooving and starting to gain better command, becoming more efficient. Hopefully, he will be an essential piece of our rotation in 2017, but meanwhile, it will be nice to see him on the mound again. And, should we rally enough to make the playoffs this year, he’ll be there to help, provided he’s on the active roster by September 1.
What would really be nice is if we can finally get a chance to trot out the big five in succession. Like a fleet of Ferraris it seems that at least one of them is always in the shop, in need of repair. Regardless of what happens with Yoenis Cespedes‘ contract, the outfield logjam, the back injury recoveries of Lucas Duda and David Wright, etc., if we begin 2017 with all five stud pitchers in our rotation, you have to like our chances.
2016 is far from over and at least this writer is not giving up hope, but the promise of 2017 is exciting to think about.
I was glad to hear that Wheeler threw off a mound and I’m looking forward to seeing him pitch in some rehab games.
Nice…at least one guy is getting healthier
I hope he is back and in the starting rotation in September. If a player is on the disabled list on August 31st then he is elgible for the playoff roster.
Let just keep cautiously optimistic on Wheeler. We know absolutely nothing about how he is doing, what kind of pitches he has now, what command and control are. Before we proclaim him as a returning stud, how about we let him continue recovering and hope he has an uneventful rehab assignment.
I maintain he was pitching injured for long enough to have negatively impacted most of his ML starts. He never lived up to any billing of a top-of-the-line starter, performing more like a back end starter. I am hopeful the surgery fixed all his ailments and cleared out the debris and we see an entirely different Wheeler who’s performance more lives up to the hype.
One aspect of Wheelers return that I dread, is listening to the naysayers on this guy. The pitch counts, the control, the inability to go deep, etc. as if he was supposed to be a finished product. The stuff is real, the movement is real, and I can see this guy taking the ball in playoff games. He gets a lot of negativity in some corners, but I am a big fan of this imperfect guy. You could make all the same complaints about Ron Darling, but what’s the fun of that?
Now: Will he return from TJ surgery and instantly be very good? That’s fairly unlikely. But maybe! Usually they say that control is the last thing to come back, and that’s always been Zacks Achilles heel. The great movement is sometimes difficult to harness; and harness it too much, you become Montero — fast and straight and hittable. I always would rather begin with the guy who has electricity in his arm. Wheeler is for real. Very glad he’s still a Met.
There are plenty of “realists” about Wheeler who dont believe he is more than the numbers thus far. Count me as one of them. High pitch counts, bad control, loss of command are what everyone saw as real. He may have the most late movement in the world, but if he cant make strikes out of it, it means zero. Thus far he has not averaged 6 IP per game. Its high leverage on the pen, which in the past has been a recipe for bad. Now Im hoping we see more control out of him with his arm repaired. Unfortunately “control is the last thing to come back” flies int he face that control is something he never really had. Nevertheless, count me as someone very eager to see him return, and return way better than we ever saw.
I hope there’s more than the 185 innings/167 hits/187k/3.55 ERA…. but that is a pretty good pitcher!
Exactly.
Verrett’s been better than expected, but let’s hope Wheeler comes back healthy and effective. Agree he would be a boost for this season and next if he does.