The Philadelphia Phillies are set for Thursday's Opening Day but will have a different ace on the mound to kick off the regular season. Cristopher Sánchez will get the nod while Zack Wheeler continues his recovery from surgery. Wheeler has been progressing in his recovery from thoracic outlet syndrome and has begun to ramp up for regular season action. His progression has gone even better than anticipated, making April a reasonable goal for a return. The club is excited to get their ace back early, but it also will cause some early shakeups for the starting rotation.
Forget the potential chaos, though. What's most important is that Rob Thomson is optimistic about Wheeler returning to form and jumping back into the Cy Young picture, per MLB.com's Todd Zolecki.
“I’m very confident,” Thomson said, per Zolecki. “His command has been normal. The velocity is normal for this time of spring training for him. I don’t have any reason to not be confident.”
According to Zolecki, Wheeler will have his first rehab assignment for Triple-A Lehigh Valley on Saturday. From there, Wheeler will continue his journey and will hopefully return to the Phillies starting rotation by next month. The Phillies will have to manage without him, like they did at the end of the 2025 season, but he'll slot in as soon as he's ready to return.
Zack Wheeler will make begin a rehab assignment on Saturday for Triple-A Lehigh Valley. Three innings. Rehab assignments for pitchers are 30 days.
— Todd Zolecki (@ToddZolecki) March 23, 2026
1 Phillies starter who'll get the boot when Zack Wheeler returns
Thomson announced on Friday that the rotation schedule will be Sánchez, Aaron Nola, Jesús Luzardo, Taijuan Walker, and rookie Andrew Painter. The Phillies are fortunate to have enough arms to fill in with Wheeler's absence, but are also leaning on some new faces like Painter to get comfortable while making his MLB debut. Walker will be the name to go, if anyone.
Walker joined the Phillies in 2023 on a four-year, $72 million deal and has had a very complicated relationship with fans since his arrival. He started off as a starter originally, but has hopped back and forth to the bullpen in the last few years. Walker pitched to a 7.10 ERA and -1.6 bWAR in 2024, but bounced back to a 4.08 ERA and 1.5 bWAR in 2025. Thomson will likely put Wheeler back at the top of the rotation schedule and relegate Walker to another role.
Wheeler's return will again make the case that the Phillies' rotation is the best in MLB in 2026. Wheeler has been one of the best starters in baseball since his arrival in Philadelphia in 2020. Per FanGraphs, his 28.6 fWAR leads all pitchers. Nola is also not too far behind, sitting in fifth with 20.6 fWAR. Wheeler was on track last season to capture his first Cy Young Award with a 2.71 ERA and 195 strikeouts in 149 2/3 innings. He ended up taking home his third All-Star nod and a ninth-place Cy Young finish. He'll then be followed in the rotation by the Cy Young runner-up, Sánchez, and then the breakout star, Luzardo.
Compared to how Phillies fans felt when Wheeler went down in August, this is the best-case scenario. What at first seemed like a possible early retirement now has Wheeler eager to get back to the mound with most of the 2026 season ahead of him. The rotation without him is still good, but with him, it's a rotation worth getting excited about.