Phillies award promising Zack Wheeler a huge contract
By Rick Soisson
The Philadelphia Phillies signed free agent right-handed starter Zack Wheeler to a reported $118 million contract, hoping Wheeler lives up to his promise.
Dec. 4: The mid-day guys on Philadelphia’s sports talk radio station WIP were discussing Zack Wheeler an hour or so before it was announced the Phillies had signed him, and the two co-hosts and their often on-air producer were, seemingly, doubled up with laughter.
In the past two years, they asserted, Phillies pitchers had thrown 40-some pitches at 97 mph or higher. Wheeler had thrown more than 1000 pitches that hard in that timeframe.
Big yucks! Amazing!
And apparently, that was good enough for the Phillies as round about 2:15 p.m. it was reported they decided to hand out a five-year deal to the right-hander for a bit under $120 million. A number of sources put the figure at $118 million.
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This is one of the richest contracts the Phillies have ever given a pitcher in terms of yearly and aggregate money. You can figure out how Cliff Lee, Cole Hamels, and Wheeler should be ranked in those two regards.
The signing came at a time when Philadelphia fans were simultaneously gnashing their teeth over their NFL team as well as the lack of significant Phillies signings. It is unclear whether or not Wheeler will make many of them happy, but those 1000 impressive heaters should at least pound a peg into the wall to hang a hat on.
Whether or not the hat will stay there is certainly debatable since Wheeler, while still in his MLB prime years, has been a bit of a disappointment as a Mets pitcher. His strikeout rate could be better than it has been (23.6% in 2019), considering his pure velocity, and his four-seamer doesn’t move quite as much as Jacob deGrom’s, according to FanGraphs’ Bob Clemens, but it does move pretty well.
Clearly, the Phillies are convinced that Wheeler is sturdy enough and has enough promise to warrant a very nice contract in his early-30s, and apparently they’re figuring his fly-ball rate and home run per fly ball rate can be held in check.
There are two still indisputable truths about major league hitters, though. No matter how hard a pitch is thrown, someone in any lineup can hit it if it doesn’t move at all or if it’s poorly located.
Any Phillies fan would, however, likely agree Wheeler is preferable to any of the three starters who have made up the back end of the Phillies rotation for the last couple of years.