CLEARWATER, Fla. -- Zack Wheeler hasn’t had the best experiences pitching to Minor Leaguers as a big leaguer.
They tend to swing at everything. And hit everything.
But they didn’t hit much during Monday morning’s two-inning simulated game at Carpenter Complex, where Wheeler made his first start of the spring. He retired seven of the eight batters he faced, which included Nathan Humphreys, Manolfi Jimenez, Lou Albrecht and Luis Caicuto. Wheeler threw 29 pitches, including every pitch in his arsenal. Most importantly, he left the mound feeling good about his progress following thoracic outlet decompression surgery in September.
“A successful spring,” Wheeler said.
Wheeler will fly with the Phillies to Philadelphia on Monday evening for Opening Day on Thursday at Citizens Bank Park. After that, he will either return to Clearwater to pitch or join another affiliate to make his second start.
It’s unclear how many starts Wheeler will need before he is ready to rejoin the Phillies’ rotation, but an April return remains realistic. Cristopher Sánchez, Jesús Luzardo, Aaron Nola and Andrew Painter each made four starts this spring, including Grapefruit League games and/or WBC games.
If Monday was No. 1 for Wheeler, then he might only need three or four more.
“Four-ish, give or take,” Wheeler said. “It would’ve been nice to get into a [Grapefruit League] game, but this is good enough. … We kind of mapped it out, and this was part of the plan. It’s good to just check that box, and kind of had no setbacks as we’ve moved through camp to be able to get to this point.”
Wheeler said he didn’t know how hard he was throwing on Monday, but he said he tried to throw harder in the second inning. It looked like he was.
“I was just trying to take it up a little bit,” he said.
Wheeler will have more boxes to check over the next few weeks. He lost weight immediately following his surgery in September because he needed to follow a strict diet. He said he’s still down about 10 pounds from the 205 he pitched at last season.
He’ll try to get that back, but he’s pitched lighter in the past.
“I pitched at 185 when I was with the Mets and I did well and I threw just as hard,” he said.
Right-hander Orion Kerkering threw an inning at the complex. It was his third appearance of the spring. He will open the season on the injured list because of a strained right hamstring, but he could be activated as early as April 7.