Zack Wheeler dealing with shoulder stiffness, next start pushed to Sunday in Texas

Zack Wheeler’s next start is getting pushed back.

Rob Thomson told reporters on Wednesday that Wheeler experienced some unusual shoulder stiffness after his last outing against the Tigers. The right-hander was originally scheduled to start Friday night in Texas, but the Phillies are giving him two extra days of rest. He’ll now toe the rubber Sunday instead.

Rob Thomson on Zack Wheeler

Zack Wheeler is being moved back a couple of days to Sunday because he had more soreness than usual with his shoulder after his last start.

Rob Thomson said they took an image and it came back clean.#Phillies @KYWNewsradio pic.twitter.com/yw3IGzZCQg

— Dave Uram (@MrUram) August 6, 2025

Wheeler underwent imaging as a precaution, and according to Thomson, the scans came back clean with no structural damage or abnormal findings. He even played catch on Wednesday, and all signs point to him making the Sunday start without restrictions, assuming he clears his normal bullpen session between now and then.

I’m cool with it. This is Zack Wheeler we’re talking about. He’s our ace and all of this seems overly precautionary to keep him where he needs to be down the stretch. The MRI was negative and the tone is optimistic so not even a flare-up in the shoulder is going to kill the agenda.

A little extra caution makes sense, especially as the calendar flips to the home stretch. For now, the plan is simple but if anything changes between now and Sunday, we’ll be the first to sound the alarm.

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