Phillies
Zack Wheeler Has Successful Surgery To Remove Blood Clot, Unknown Timeline For Return
Penn State Great Valley MBA, Penn State Berks Undergrad, Eagle Scout and Vigil Honor, IT Service Manager. I joined Sports Talk Philly in 2017 and root for all the Philly teams (as well as their minor league counter parts).
All posts by Paul BowmanPublished18 Aug 2025
On Saturday, news came out that Zack Wheeler had been placed on the injured list due to a blood clot.
The team announced just two days later that their ace had undergone successful surgery to remove the blood clot.
Right-handed pitcher Zack Wheeler underwent a successful thrombolysis procedure to remove a blood clot in his right upper extremity this morning by Dr. Paul DiMuzio at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital.
Further treatment and a subsequent timeline of recovery for Wheeler is to…
— Philadelphia Phillies (@Phillies) August 18, 2025
Unfortunately, that still comes with no accompanying update as to what the timeline for recovery is expected to be.
As outlined in the other cases by Michael last Saturday, surgery was the first step in each of those cases. The lowest return timeline included in that article is 3.5 months, which would put Wheeler out until Spring Training next season at the earliest.
That would deal a devastating blow to a team with World Series aspirations as they sit second in the National League standing off the backs of their pitching staff which would now be missing their ace, features a returned Aaron Nola who gave up 6 earned runs in 2.1 innings Sunday, and has a struggling Jesus Luzardo and Ranger Suarez ahead of Taijuan Walker with the team’s top depth option (Mick Abel) having been traded at the deadline.
