Are Phillies optimistic about an extension for Zack Wheeler? Dave Dombrowski staying mum.

16/02/2024

Phillies pitcher Matt Strahm heads to a workout on Thursday in Clearwater, Fla.

TAMPA, Fla. — Zack Wheeler reported for spring training this week and said his agent has begun talking about a contract extension that would keep the ace pitcher with the Phillies beyond this season.

Phillies president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski (right) speaks with manager Rob Thomson during Wednesday’s workout in Clearwater, Fla.

Is there cause for the team to be optimistic about making a deal?

“You know we’d like to sign him. It’s a priority for us,” Phillies president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski said Thursday. “We’d love to have that happen. But I’ve seen a lot of curves and all that [in other negotiations], so I have no public disclosure of my optimism or non-optimism.”

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Fair enough. And because Dombrowski doesn’t comment on contract talks, he declined to say much more except that he generally views opening day as an “artificial” deadline for negotiations of this sort.

Wheeler said he wouldn’t be opposed to continuing the conversation during the season.

“Everybody’s different, but I don’t want to be a distraction for guys’ performance,” Dombrowski said. “From my perspective, I don’t want it to be where you’re putting a guy where he’s thinking about that. Not that [Wheeler] would. I’m sure he’d be focused. But you sure would like to get it done by [the end of] spring training.”

Phillies pitcher Zack Wheeler throws at BayCare Ballpark on Wednesday.

The terms of a Wheeler extension aren’t entirely clear. In negotiating big contracts for Bryce Harper, Trea Turner, and Aaron Nola, the Phillies stretched the length of the deal to lower the average annual salary for luxury-tax purposes. With Wheeler, who will turn 34 on May 30, they may prefer the opposite — shorter term, higher salary.

With one year left on his contract, Wheeler has already outperformed the five-year, $118 million deal that he signed in December 2019. He has a 3.06 ERA and 675 strikeouts in 629⅓ innings with the Phillies and leads all pitchers in wins above replacement since 2020.

Wheeler’s expectations for his next contract: “I just want to be paid [based on] how I’ve done,” he said, “what they expect out of me.”

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Dombrowski expects that Wheeler will remain an elite pitcher as he ages. Justin Verlander won Cy Young Awards at ages 36 and 39; Max Scherzer was effective through his mid-30s. In Wheeler, Dombrowski sees a similar work ethic and commitment to evolving as a pitcher.

“He has really continued to know his own body and conditioning and working with our training staff, our conditioning staff, our pitching people,” Dombrowski said. “He really has a feel of what to do. He keeps himself in really, really good shape. And he continues to even develop as a pitcher. He adds pitches.

“Now, anybody’s at risk [of injury], but you look at him, you’re saying, ‘This guy’s in great shape and throwing well.’ ”

As the rotation Turns

Because he has five years of major-league service time, newly signed right-hander Spencer Turnbull would have to give his consent for the Phillies to send him to the minors.

“I think he’d be willing to do that if he felt it was best for him, but there’s no agreements in place that he’ll definitely do it,” Dombrowski said. “I think he still hopes to make our club.”

Dombrowski was running the Tigers’ baseball operations when Detroit drafted Turnbull in 2014. Injuries, including Tommy John elbow surgery in 2021 and a neck problem last year, limited him to 16 starts over the last three seasons.

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The Phillies view Turnbull as depth for the starting rotation. If he does make the team, he could start the season as a long reliever and stay stretched out to start “for a short time.”

“Turnbull’s actually a pretty good pitcher when he’s healthy, and we think he’s healthy,” Dombrowski said. “We think it works towards us where he can pitch long relief or start for us. Because the odds of going through a season with five starting pitchers all year are about zero.”

Dombrowski: Nothing doing

With all but two or three roster spots accounted for, Dombrowski said the Phillies have had difficulty enticing free agents to take bench or depth roles. Even with spring training underway, he said most unsigned players’ expectations haven’t changed.

“I’m a little bit surprised because it is mid-February,” Dombrowski said. “I gather it’s going to change at some point, but it might change somewhere else before it changes with us.”

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As for any rumors that have connected the Phillies with big-ticket free agents Blake Snell, Jordan Montgomery, Cody Bellinger, or Matt Chapman — all Scott Boras clients, not coincidentally — Dombrowski sounded amused.

“I know our name’s been out there,” he said. “We haven’t been in any of those conversations.”

Extra bases

Dombrowski reiterated that the Phillies don’t expect top prospect Andrew Painter to pitch at all this season, even in the minors. A return in the fall instructional league is more likely. … Third baseman Alec Bohm had his arbitration hearing in Arizona. Bohm filed for a $4 million salary for 2024; the Phillies offered $3.4 million. A verdict is expected Friday.

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