Why will Zack Wheeler miss the rest of the 2025 MLB Season? Reasons explained

Zack Wheeler will not be active for the rest of the 2025 baseball season. The star pitcher for the Philadelphia Phillies has an upcoming surgery to correct his venous thoracic outlet syndrome.

Wheeler had earlier undergone blood clot removal surgery on his right upper body on August 18, 2025. The player’s upcoming surgery requires a 6 to 8-month recovery, meaning he may be out of commission for quite some time.

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Club Manager Rob Thomson spoke to NBC Philadelphia about how the team has adjusted to the sad reality. While he revealed that he was disappointed at losing a valuable player, he expressed that he was happy that Wheeler was receiving the help he needed:

“I found out a little bit more last night and he’s healthy. It’s disappointing to lose him, but we have a lot of depth in our club. So, the six-to-eight-month recovery was encouraging to me. I talked to him yesterday; he was in here yesterday."

“We just got to keep moving forward,” manager Rob Thomson says as top club player Zack Wheeler prepares for his second surgery

The manager for the Philadelphia Phillies, who was on the cusp of implementing a six-man rotation before news of Zack Wheeler’s exit for the rest of the year, stated that the team will move forward regardless of the disappointing news:

“It’s disappointing, but I think everyone knows it’s out of our control. We’re happy that he’s going to be healthy cause it’s a very serious thing that he went through.

He added:

“They're baseball players, and they kind of move on. We’ve got a game today, and they're not going to cancel it, and we’ve got another game tomorrow. "We just got to keep moving forward.”

President of Baseball Operations Dave Dombrowski expects the star player to return to his former playing capacity once he fully recovers. According to media reports, Zack Wheeler had complained of “heaviness” in his shoulder since the All-Star break.

The baseball player experienced a dip in velocity and command, which was a cause for concern. After continued poor game performances, the club had to examine Wheeler medically.

Paul Buchheit, the head athletic trainer at the Phillies, stated:

“They weren’t very subtle, but having some heaviness and fullness was one of the symptoms where we said, ‘hey, let’s get this looked at’.