MLB Players: Top 10 old faces in new places for 2020
By Phil Watson
MLB Players: Top 10 old faces in new places for 2020
. . . zack wheeler. 9. player. 6
How acquired: Signed as a free agent on Dec. 9
Zack Wheeler will stay in the NL East after signing with the Philadelphia Phillies in early December following six-plus seasons with the New York Mets.
Last season, Wheeler started 31 games and pitched a career-high 195.1 innings, posting a 3.96 ERA and 1.259 WHIP, allowing 22 home runs and striking out 195 batters. He’s made 60 starts over the last two seasons after missing all of 2015 and 2016 after Tommy John surgery.
Last season, Wheeler was ninth in the National League in innings pitched and allowed the eighth-fewest home runs per nine innings at 1.014. His 828 batters faced was sixth-most in the NL and his 3.48 FIP was ninth.
Wheeler projects to a 4.01 ERA and 1.22 WHIP, according to the Depth Charts projections at FanGraphs.
He will turn 30 on May 30 this season and was the sixth overall pick by the San Francisco Giants in the 2009 MLB June Amateur Draft from East Paulding High School in Dallas, Ga. He was acquired by the Mets in a July 2011 trade for veteran outfielder Carlos Beltran and signed a five-year deal with Philadelphia worth $118 million.
The contract tops out at $26 million in 2022 before gradual declines in each of the final two seasons.