When his career is said and done, Zack Wheeler will go down as one of the greatest Philadelphia Phillies pitchers of all time. He currently sits behind only Robin Roberts, Steve Carlton, Grover Cleveland Alexander, Cole Hamels, and Aaron Nola among rWAR leaders in franchise pitching history.
And for all the award snubs Wheeler has had in his Phillies career, namely finishing runner-up in the 2021 and 2024 NL Cy Young races, he broke one award drought that is rarely considered in Philadelphia baseball circles.
In 2023, Wheeler won the first Gold Glove at pitcher for the Phillies since Carlton in 1981. Thats 42 years of Philadelphia not taking home the award in a 15-team league.
Now, one must consider Greg Maddux when discussing pitching defense during this time period. From 1990 to 2008, he monopolized the NL Gold Glove at pitcher, taking home the honors every single year except 2003, when fellow Atlanta Brave Mike Hampton won the award.
Zack Wheeler wasn't even the best fielding pitcher on the Phillies
That said, even after that period, voters snubbed several excellent fielding pitchers on the Phillies. In recent years, Cliff Lee, Vince Velasquez, and especially Ranger Suárez fell short in the eyes of voters.
Suárez is an very interesting case for three reasons:
- He was flashy. Defenders who make highlight-reel plays perform better in award voting because they pass the eye test, even if they don't pass the statistics test. Derek Jeter won five Gold Gloves this way while having a -165(!) DRS.
- He was good statistically. Though defensive stats are notoriously fickle in small sample sizes—an even bigger problem for pitchers who field very few balls over a season—DRS loves Suárez, who has accrued 31 DRS in his career so far. In 2022, he led all MLB pitchers with 31 assists in addition to 13 putouts.
- Finally, Suárez was probably a better fielder than Wheeler in 2023, and so too, for that matter, was Taijuan Walker. Both had more assists than Wheeler, and where the Gold Glove winner had zero pickoffs, Walker had six.
Those reasons are why it was so surprising to see Wheeler win the Gold Glove over finalists Walker and Jesús Luzardo, another excellent fielding Phillie pitcher.
This is not to say Wheeler is a poor fielder. He’s very good defensively and certainly deserving of a Gold Glove. Across his long career, Wheeler's award recognition is well below where it should be. So perhaps it’s karmic justice that Wheeler snubbed someone else in that Gold Glove race for a change.
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