Zack Wheeler’s road back from the medical condition and subsequent surgery that ended his 2025 season winds through his hometown of Atlanta on Saturday night. Just a few miles from where he pitched as a Little Leaguer, Wheeler will face the Atlanta Braves in his first big-league start since Aug ust 15 when he was shut down with thoracic outlet syndrome, which resulted in his having a rib surgically removed to alleviate the condition a month later. Wheeler has completed his recovery from the surgery and made five minor-league starts. Results are secondary when a veteran pitcher of Wheeler’s status – he twice has finished second in the National Cy Young race – pitches on minor-league rehab. Good health is the focus, and despite giving up 13 runs in 20 innings, Wheeler on Wednesday said, “Honestly, I’ve felt great.” But the velocity on Wheeler’s fastball, which averaged over 96 mph last year and regularly climbed a couple of ticks higher at peak performance, was noticeably down in his minor-league work. The pitch topped out at 95 mph, still plenty firm, but often sat in the 91-93 mph range. Wheeler is a month away from his 36th birthday. He’s coming off a significant surgery. Will he be a different guy as he begins his 12th big-league season Saturday night? He was candid on the topic. “I’m just trying to get outs,” he said. “I’m not throwing as hard as I was, so I know it’s going to be a little bit harder for me. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I have all the confidence in the world, but it might be a little different from the start until I get my velo back. So, I don’t expect it to go perfect. I don’t expect it to go bad, either. I’ve just got to go out there and get through this first month of going through the rotation a few different times and trying to get back into the routine of things at the big-league level and go from there.” Wheeler was asked if he believed the velocity would grow. “I hope so,” he said. “All you can do is hope, right?” In the meantime … “I’ve had times in the past when I wasn’t throwing as hard,” he said. “They hit more foul balls instead of swing and miss. You’ve got to pitch a little more, hit your spots, try to make guys chase a little more, but not get away too much from what you’re trying to do by throwing (crappy) balls. You’ve got to trust your stuff even though it’s not 100 percent yet.” Even without his top fastball, Wheeler was encouraged overall by his rehab stint. “My body is moving well and all that, whether I’m throwing 91, 92 or 93,” he said. “I feel like I’m throwing hard. Everybody that has faced me and caught me says my ball is flying like it normally does, spinning like it normally does. At least I have that going for me. It can still be a little sneaky and get on ‘em even though the velo was down just a tad.” Though thoracic outlet syndrome can be career-threatening in some cases, Wheeler was always confident he’d be back. He survived Tommy John surgery as a young pitcher and came back to become one of the game’s best. In fact, from the time he arrived in Philadelphia in 2020 through last season, he ranked No. 1 in the majors in Fangraphs WAR (28.6) for starting pitchers. “I don’t think you can sit there and be 50/50 about it,” he said. “Anybody who gets an injury, you expect to be back to who you were. If you’re not, you make adjustments. But you can’t have the mindset of, ‘I don’t know if I’ll be the same person.’ ‘Will I be able to make it back?’ You have to have the mindset of, ‘Yeah, I’m going to be back and I’m going to be one of the best in baseball.’ “ Right now, the Phillies, who entered the season with World Series aspirations, aren’t the best in baseball at anything. They entered Friday with the worst record in the National League at 8-17. Their losing streak stood at nine games. “Yeah,” Wheeler said when asked if he was surprised that the team has struggled so much. “We’ve gotten off to some bad starts, maybe not quite this bad, but we’ve gotten off to bad starts. In years past, it’s always been the hitting is there and the pitching is not, or vice versa. Right now, it’s a little bit of both. “We’ve got to string some hits together and we’ve got to go a little deeper into games as a pitching staff and don’t let up so many runs so the hitters don’t feel like they’re already down early.” Of course, a few more runs would give the pitchers some needed cushion. The Phils entered Friday ranked 27th in the majors with just 89 runs scored. By contrast, Atlanta, this weekend’s opponent, leads the majors with 150. The Braves entered the series 9 ½ games up on the Phillies in the NL East.   “It works both ways,” Wheeler said. “Everybody just has to be a little more consistent, that’s all. It’s not where we want to be, the front office, the fans, us. We have to stay confident. We know we’re a good team. We’ve just got to play like it.” ...read more read less