Zack Wheeler’s MRI reveals no structural damage, but Phillies plan to be ‘very cautious with him’

The Philadelphia Phillies received relatively positive news on Zack Wheeler Wednesday, after he departed his outing Tuesday evening against the Los Angeles Dodgers early with left low back tightness.

However, if you have tickets to Sunday’s Oakland Athletics-Phillies game at Citizens Bank Park game, don’t be so certain you’ll see Wheeler take the mound for the home team.

“So, he’s still a little sore today. We got an MRI. There is no structural damage,” Thomson said. “But we’re going to be very cautious with him.”

Thomson was non-committal on whether Wheeler will still toe the rubber as expected in the final game before the All-Star Break. He said they’ll know tomorrow.

But listening to Thomson pregame, you got the feeling that the Phillies will err on the side of caution with Wheeler.

“We’re not gonna risk anything,” Thomson said. “And it just happens really on the perfect day, the day before the [All-Star] Break. Because that way you can get all your bullpen arms to throw in the game and that way they don’t have five days off coming out of the break. But we’ll see how he is tomorrow.”

Wheeler’s back tightened up during a six-run bottom of the fourth inning for the Phillies Tuesday. He made it through the top of the fifth inning, but did allow a solo home run off the bat of Cavan Biggio, while also issuing walks to Shohei Ohtani and Will Smith before escaping the inning without further damage.

Even in oppressive heat and with a giant lead, Wheeler likely wouldn’t have otherwise departed the game after throwing 76 pitches and allowing just one run across five innings. But the Phillies were cautious with him, and the 34-year-old revealed post game that he’s had some discomfort for his last two starts, after tweaking it landing hard on the mound at Citizens Bank Park before the most recent roadtrip.

“It just tightened up on me then, just had to deal with it and treat it a little bit here and there,” Wheeler said.

Clearly, the Phillies would prefer Wheeler pitches Sunday, because he’s one of the best starters in the sport and there’s the potential for a heavy workload from the bullpen Saturday depending on how Tyler Phillips’ first MLB start goes.

But there’s obviously a much bigger picture here with the two-time All-Star, and it seems October aspirations will be the deciding factor in whether Wheeler makes his next scheduled start.

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