Zack Wheeler thinks 2024 regular season was his strongest

Zack Wheeler reached 200 innings in Washington on Saturday. (Zac BonDurant/Icon Sportswire)

Zack Wheeler had thrown 90 pitches and the Phillies had (almost) nothing to play for, but Rob Thomson sent him out for the start of the seventh inning anyway. Perhaps he wasn’t worried about pitch count (Wheeler’s next start, NLDS Game 1, isn’t until Saturday); perhaps he just liked the matchup against Juan Yepez with the Phillies still technically in play for the National League’s No. 1 seed.

The way it played out could have hinted at something else. Wheeler struck out Yepez, and his night was done. The 6 1/3-inning outing brought his season total to exactly 200.

Intentional or not, it’s a meaningful milestone for starting pitchers, especially these days. If Aaron Nola throws 5 2/3 innings in Sunday’s regular season finale, there will be just five pitchers across MLB to reach the 200-inning milestone this season.

It’s the second time Wheeler’s done it in his career, and quantity did not come at the expense of quality. He finished the regular season with a 2.57 ERA, 0.96 WHIP and 6.3 hits per nine innings. Those latter two lead the Senior Circuit. All are career-bests.

Was it the strongest regular season he’s ever had?

“When I step back and look at it, yeah,” Wheeler said postgame Saturday when NBC Sports Philadelphia’s Corey Seidman asked that same question. “Probably so.”

He immediately followed by saying he felt more dominant in 2021. That season, Wheeler posted a career-second-best ERA, WHIP and H/9, but he struck batters out slightly more frequently: 10.4 times per nine innings, compared to 10.1 this year. Walks and homers came at a slightly lower rate that year, as well.

Arguably the greatest differentiator between the two seasons is volume, of which Wheeler had even more in his first full season as a Phillie. His 213 1/3 innings led baseball, he threw three complete games (vs. none this year), he faced 62 more batters and struck out an extra 23.

On an individual level, the two impressive campaigns will likely lead to the same place. Wheeler finished second in National League Cy Young Award voting that season to Corbin Burnes (despite many viewing the Phillies ace as deserving of the honor instead). He will likely do the same this year, and even though his 2024 season could have been better than his 2021, there’s arguably less of a case that he should win it this time around.

On a team level, the Phillies have much higher aims this year, when Wheeler’s Cy Young-caliber regular season will precede Phillies postseason baseball. He’s been vocal about wanting to finally win a Cy Young Award. There’s nothing he can control in that regard anymore. He can control what comes next. That begins Saturday, when he’ll try to add to his resume as one of the better postseason pitchers the game has ever seen.

“Just worried,” Wheeler said Saturday, “about winning some games.”

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