Eight thoughts on the resurgent Phillies, starting with Zack Wheeler and Kyle Schwarber

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The Phillies are 16-5 since Wheeler, the highest-paid pitcher in the sport by annual salary, made his season debut on April 25 and immediately became a steady presence every fifth day. He might not be the biggest star on the Phillies, but there he was Sunday with a fastball sitting 96 mph as he outdueled Paul Skenes. For three weeks, the Phillies have reminded everyone that when their stars are being stars, this team can do anything. Kyle Schwarber has a 1.164 OPS since April 25. That’s second in the majors. Bryce Harper’s 1.030 OPS is seventh in the majors during that span. Brandon Marsh is 41st with an .858 OPS. The rest of the Phillies have produced a .600 OPS since April 25. Wheeler and Cristopher Sánchez have combined for a 1.30 ERA in 62 2/3 innings since April 25. They are second and fourth in innings among all pitchers during that stretch. Sánchez has not allowed a run in 29 2/3 consecutive innings, the 10th-longest streak by a Phillies pitcher since at least 1900. A top-heavy Phillies roster hasn’t been enough to win in October. But they have always had a shot at October because of the star power on their roster. When this whole operation teetered in April, the onus was on the stars to prevent the Phillies from enduring an irrelevant summer. Consider it done. There is work to do, of course; a 24-23 record and an 82-win pace through 47 games would have qualified as a disappointment in March. But the way they’ve looked the last three weeks provides some optimism. Especially when it comes to Wheeler. He has a 1.99 ERA through his first five starts after surgery to remove a rib and correct thoracic outlet syndrome. It is beyond everyone’s expectations. Wheeler’s fastball averaged 96.3 mph Sunday during seven scoreless innings in a 6-0 win over the Pittsburgh Pirates. That was better than 15 of his 24 starts in 2025. He is back to his prior self. A smattering of other things I think I think after a 5-1 road trip to Boston and Pittsburgh: 1. I think it’s past time to place Schwarber in a special tier: He is one of the greatest sluggers in 144 years of Phillies baseball. Schwarber, during his latest barrage, passed Dick Allen for 10th place all-time in Phillies home runs. He could be in sixth place by the end of this season. This realization is not groundbreaking, but it’s best to view Schwarber in this context. His hot streaks are almost taken for granted, a rite of summer (or, in this case, spring). But what Schwarber is doing has almost no parallel in Phillies history. Ryan Howard had 203 homers in his first 674 games with the Phillies. Schwarber beat that pace. Schwarber is doing it at a time when, league-wide, slugging percentage is at its lowest since 2014. The sport should normalize some when summer arrives, but his power production is irreplaceable in this run-scoring environment. It’s simple, but it’s not. Of Schwarber’s 20 homers, 18 have been on pitches in the strike zone. Take this recent road trip: Schwarber hit his four homers on three fastballs and a cutter. Three of them were in advantage counts (2-1, 3-1, 2-1). The other was a first-pitch heater he jumped. Three of the four road-trip homers came against lefties. 2. I think Aaron Nola is a paradox right now. He is generating better results in 2026 with his signature curveball (.172 batting average, .279 slugging percentage) than he has in years. It’s the sign that all is not lost for a pitcher who has produced a 5.98 ERA in his last 140 innings — since the beginning of last season. But there are real problems. Nola cannot get to the curveball, at least not in favorable counts, because everything else has failed him. He’s allowed a .970 OPS in plate appearances that begin with a 1-0 count. Whenever he’s thrown a fastball (four-seamer or sinker) with the batter ahead in the count, opponents have hit .400/.556/1.000 on those pitches. Nola is throwing only 42.5 percent of his pitches in the strike zone — the lowest rate of his career. Everything begins and ends with that. And it’s not just an ABS thing; Nola has lived on the edge of the strike zone at a 41 percent rate, a sharp decline from 50 percent in 2025. The Phillies have to rethink everything with Nola’s current four-seam fastball. He cannot locate it. Even when Nola is ahead and throws the four-seamer, batters are 7-for-16 with three doubles and a homer. He’s thrown 20 four-seam fastballs in the middle of the strike zone. Opponents are 8-for-11 on those mistakes with two doubles, a triple and three home runs. Two of the homers he allowed in his Pittsburgh start were middle-middle fastballs. 3. I think Harper has delivered his message. So far. He’ll wake up Monday with the ninth-highest OPS in MLB. His .935 OPS is his seventh-best through the first 47 games of a season and highest since 2022. Forget the e-word; Harper has made all of the offseason drama moot by just being Harper. 4. I think there is one trend that should concern the Phillies: There were 255 batters who had seen at least 100 fastballs (four- and two-seamers) in the strike zone entering Sunday. Alec Bohm ranked 251st in slugging percentage (.222) on those in-zone fastballs. J.T. Realmuto was even worse, ranking 252nd with a .211 slugging percentage. It’s a significant departure from his performance on these pitches in previous seasons. The league is slugging .462 on in-zone fastballs this season. Realmuto has been at or above that mark even as he crept into his 30s. It is a reason why he was able to post a 108 OPS+ (8 percent better than league average) from 2022-25. It’s not as though Realmuto, 35, has lost bat speed; MLB’s Statcast bat-tracking data actually shows a slight uptick from 2025 to 2026. Realmuto had a strong at-bat Sunday against Paul Skenes. He lashed a full-count sweeper to left field for a single. But until he proves he can connect on fastballs in the zone again, he’s going to see more of them. 5. I think it’s notable the Phillies sent a robust contingent last week to scout Japan, led by general manager Preston Mattingly, according to Sports Nippon. One of their main targets: Teruaki Sato, a 27-year-old third baseman/right fielder who is expected to be posted by the Hanshin Tigers this offseason. Sato bats left-handed, which does not make him the ideal fit, but positionally he is said to handle two spots on the field where the Phillies will ostensibly have openings (Bohm and Adolis García will be free agents at season’s end). The Phillies have not concealed their desire to enter the Japanese market. They were lukewarm on last year’s class — Tatsuya Imai, Munetaka Murakami and Kazuma Okamoto. Murakami, who has outperformed the entire industry’s expectations, was never a fit because the Phillies have a designated hitter and first baseman. Okamoto, who signed a four-year, $60 million deal, is batting cleanup and playing a decent third base for the Toronto Blue Jays. He would look nice in the Phillies lineup right about now. A group of Phillies officials, including assistant general manager Jorge Velandia, international scouting director Derrick Chung, assistant coordinator of international scouting Tora Otsuka, and several scouts, have upped the club’s focus on the Pacific Rim. The Phillies, league sources said, are still finalizing a seven-figure deal with Chan-min Park, a 17-year-old righty from South Korea. 6. I think it’s deserving, even if for a day, for Dusty Wathan to have some attention. As acting manager in Saturday’s win while interim manager Don Mattingly attended one of his son’s college graduations, Wathan did not have to make a single pitching change thanks to Sánchez’s gem. This game’s easy, Harry. Wathan, 52, has been an organizational mainstay for more than 20 years now. He finished his playing career at Triple A with the franchise, then managed for a decade at every level in the Phillies’ farm system. He is the longest-tenured coach on the big-league staff, and since 2018, it’s likely no human has seen the Phillies in person more than Wathan. Mattingly, who is 15-4 as the manager, tabbed Wathan for a promotion to bench coach when the Phillies fired Rob Thomson. Wathan, whose father John played and managed in the majors for 16 years, has interviewed for managerial jobs in the past. Alex Cora will be the favorite to manage the Phillies in 2027, but Wathan should also be considered. 7. I think Schwarber and Harper should become the first teammates to participate in the Home Run Derby since Aaron Judge and Gary Sánchez in 2017. How cool of a show would that be at Citizens Bank Park? Make it happen. Spot the pattern. Connect the terms Find the hidden link between sports terms