Despite the weathering of some top pitchers, the Astros and the Phillies sit on their respective divisions, and now both teams face the prospect of ending the regular season – or even longer – without one of their best men. On Tuesday, the Astronauts placed Josh Hader on a 15-day injury list, initially described as shoulder strain. On Friday, they clarified that he was diagnosed with a sprained shoulder capsule. On Saturday, the Phillies announced that Zack Wheeler landed on the IL due to a “right upper limb blood clot” near the shoulder.
Wheeler’s injury is more serious of the two, because if not treated, blood clots can also be life-threatening, and even career-threatening. Fortunately, it sounds like the Phillies’ medical team has taken the spot before it gets worse. Wheeler has been working on his 108-shot full game click against the Reds on July 6 as his era and FIP rises as his speed drops. His scheduled match against the Rangers on August 8 was postponed for two days due to sore shoulders. The MRI filmed at the time was restored to clean, but even so, when he finally picked up the mound on August 10, he set the average speed of all six products to average speed.
Zack Wheeler digs his way in 5 innings to get his first win in over a month…but his speed is greatly reduced and his fastball order continues to dodge him.
His next start will have many eyes. pic.twitter.com/iif2msnr0v
– Paul Casella (@paul_caseellamlb) August 10, 2025
Wheeler and manager Rob Thomson were both concerned about the slowdown of Wheeler’s decline at that time. Although the 35-year-old Righy rebounded 1-2 mph against the Nationals on August 15, he only lasted five innings in a row, the first time he failed to exceed five more than five seasons in a back-to-back start. Afterward, Wheeler reported that his right shoulder felt “a little heavy” and Saturday’s examination showed a blood clot. “Yesterday, some symptoms changed,” said Paul Buchheit, chief athlete on Saturday. “Doctors are helping to diagnose and speed up the ability to do this morning.”
“I commend Paul and the doctor for finding this here because it may be much more difficult situations than the difficult situations we have encountered,” said Dave Dombrowski, president of baseball business.
Wheeler will be tested and evaluated in Philadelphia this week, after which the Phillies will be able to provide a more detailed prognosis, but there is no estimate yet when he will return. “We don’t know the schedule,” Thomson said. “I thought a lot about Zach and his family because it’s not a hamstring injury or something like that.”
Sometimes, this clot requires surgical removal of the first rib, which can compress the subclavian vein or subclavian artery, a condition similar to the thoracic outlet syndrome. Under the knife, Will Carroll provides several examples of pitchers who handled the clot and removed the ribs and returned successfully, including Aaron Cook (2004), Alex Cobb (2011), Dillon Gee (2012) and Mike Foltynewicz (2015):
The surgical path (if used) is basically the same as that of TOS surgery. The difference is that most of the pitchers who have experienced it are older, which adds to the bet. At 35, recovery time is more than just recovery, it’s about how much left after the tank comes back. He also performed well, and could use pitchers in his late career like Max Scherzer or Clayton Kershaw.
Wheeler has been a picture of durability so far, having traveled only two injuries on the roster in the last seven seasons: in 2019 he missed two weeks in the All-Star Game due to shoulder fatigue, and in ’22, he missed four weeks due to forearm tendinitis. Only three pitchers have surpassed his 188 games since the start of the 2019 season, and no pitcher has more than his 1,174.1 frames. He is the out-of-control leader in the war:
Leader of pitching wars since 2019
Wheeler has the same lead in baseball reference wars in the same time frame, while Cole’s 26.4 has a 33.8 lead – maybe a little bit of his advantage when it comes to his Hall of Fame chances. After finishing second in the NL Cy Young vote last season, he was in another free throw season, becoming his third All-Star team and leading the NL with Xera (2.44), strikeout (195), strikeout rate (33.3%) and 3-point difference (27.7%). He is also fourth in FIP (2.98) and War (4.0), and ERA (2.71) is fifth.
That’s the pitcher for the playoff team – because the Phillies, who have five games leading in NL East, seems to be 99.1% of the playoffs, which seems to be the starter of its first game. Indeed, Wheeler has won five series openers in the last three playoffs and has generally performed well in this case, allowing three innings in 33 innings. He is the best playoff pitcher of the past decade, with 2.18 ERA and 2.72 FIP in 70.1 innings. You won’t easily replace a pitcher like this, although according to FIP (3.42) and War (15.6), there is at least a strong support lineup in the strongest rotation of the Grand Slam.
Both Cristopher Sánchez and Ranger Suárez were in a strong season with Wheeler, with Sánchez ranked second in the NL War (4.3), while ERA (2.45) third in the ERA (2.45), while Suárez ranked top 15 in NL pitchers, ranking at least 100 innings in ERA and FIP (3.28 and 3.28 and 3.28 and 3.28 and 3.28 and 3.28). Jesús Luzardo performed well, with 4.21 ERA, 3.11 FIP and 3.5 Wars, the last of which was fifth in the league.
Aaron Nola, on the other hand, is terrible. He was activated after being lost for three months Sunday after being shaken by the Nationals in 2.1 innings with seven hits and six runs, improving his season ERA to 6.92 and his FIP to 4.87, both of which were the worst in both careers. His lowest strikeout rate (23.8%) allowed a career-high 1.9 home run since the 2015 rookie campaign.
The Phillies plan to add six-player rotation by adding Nola to the unit surrounded by Taiwan Walker, who earned 3.34 ERA and 4.73 FIP in 91.2 innings of the Swingman character. Instead, they will now stick to a five-man rotation, while Andrew Painter maintains the 60 rupees outlook for Andrew Painter on Triple-A Lehigh Valley, who missed the full time of 2023 and most of 24 years due to UCL’s tear and Tommy John’s majority. The 22-year-old painter has been knocked out recently, allowing 15 innings in his last three games in Lehigh Valley, increasing his season-era era to 5.15 and his FIP to 4.86. Between Lehigh Valley and Low-A Clearwater, he threw 92.2 innings so far and is expected to face a 120 innings.
The Phillies did lose depth before the trade prospect Mick Abel, who won six starts for the team from mid-May to early July to the twins of Jhoan Duran Deal. Speaking of Duran, the team suffered panic when they were knocked out after being hit by a comeback right ankle on Friday. The injury at the time looked horrifying as Duran could not put any weight on his ankle, but just 13 hours later he went through his normal pre-game routine and on Sunday he gained a save by retiring the last two nationals in the Phillies’ 11-9 victory.
Long story short, even if Wheeler doesn’t need surgery and just put it on a blood thinner, his season is likely to be over. This could be the case with Hard. The 31-year-old left-hander last pitched on August 8, when he threw a season-high 36 goals while covering up the ninth and 10th innings in the win over the Yankees. On August 11, Joe Espada called on Enyel de Los Santos and Bennett Sousa to beat the Red Sox 7-6, and the Astros manager said Hader was unable to get due to shoulder discomfort and was undergoing testing. The next day, he was placed on the 15-day injury list, originally called left shoulder pressure, his first major league IL, and in addition to the 2021 co-related games, Espada revealed on August 13 that Hader has been ongoing for a second opinion and is longer than the 15-day minimum. Now we know why.
The Astronaut announced Friday that Hard will be closed for three weeks and is limited to alternating between rest and strengthening practice during this period. The pitcher said that once he was cleaned up and thrown again, it would take him three weeks to speed up, which would make his return more or less at the start of the playoffs – of course without any setbacks.
The injury interrupted Hader’s excellent season, becoming his sixth All-Star team and converted 28 out of 29 saving opportunities while also earning another 2.05 ERA and 3.23 FIP. He is more dependent on his slider than ever – 41.4% higher than last year’s 27.4% – he definitely dominates. His 36.9% strikeout rate ranked third among rescuers with at least 40 innings, while his .202 BABIP ranked fifth. He didn’t do it with smoke and mirrors, as his .158 XBA and 2.04 Xera are both his actual statistics.
Thanks to Hader in part, Astros’s bullpen has always been one of the most powerful bullpens in the game. Its strikeout rate of 27.1% leads the Grand Slam, while its 3.75 ERA ranks 10th and the 3.89 FIP ranks 11th. The team did skate in Sunday’s rankings, when five rescuers allowed 11 runs in five innings for starting Cristian Javier – second only to his second start after returning from Tommy John’s surgery – leaving due to illness. At least outfielder Chas McCormick confined the disaster with a scoreless inning.
The Astros bullpen threw only 434 innings, the highest fifth inning in the Grand Slam. It is quite noteworthy that due to the injury, only two starters (Hunt Brown and Franber Valdez) made more than 14 starts for the team, while two (Ronel Blanco and Hayden Wesneski) were lost for Tommy John Surgery, Spencer Arrighetti also disappeared for Thimb and Lance Mccers jccl ancc McCers & Lance Mccers Jr. rance Mccers Jr.s and and and Spencer Arrighetti was missing for four months. count. McCullers is currently having blisters, while Brandon Walter is showing up due to inflammation in the elbow. Despite this, the Astros Spin ranked third in the Grand Slams in the Spin Wars (11.8) and the Seventh Inning (672), which puts some pressure on the bullpen.
That said, the Astros are one of six teams with six different rescuers who have played at least 40 times, while Bennett Sousa has played one more, and they will be three substitutes with at least 50 innings, as well as Padres and Reds. For all the starters’ injuries, those non-raiders’ reliefists (right bryan abreu and Kaleb ort, as well as left-handed Sosa, Brian King and Steven Ockett) are active and can all absorb higher leverage works, and along with the agents who recently signed free agents and Who Who, who signed up for a senior career with him. Espada has not named a replacement, but so far Sousa (with its four saves second in the team), while Abreu has won the savings in Hader’s absence, while King and Okert saved the game earlier this season. With Hard’s out, almost everyone can get the ball to ninth.
Losing Hard was a blow, and the Astronauts (69-55) only had the lead (68-57) leading the Mariners (68-57) and the losses were hardly trivial. Currently, Astros and Hader sound optimistic about October’s return, but between their slender department lead and ticking clock, there is little room for error.
