Will Zack Wheeler bring back the cutter? Phillies pitcher says he's working to fine-tune the pitch
Zack Wheeler just wants to get through spring training healthy. That's the main goal for any pitcher, especially one of Wheeler's caliber.
Of course, spring training is for working and fine-tuning some things. Wheeler is doing that with a pitch he hasn't thrown as much of late.
In Saturday's game against the Detroit Tigers, Wheeler gave up no earned runs in five innings for the Philadelphia Phillies. He gave up three hits and struck out three, but the use of the cutter was the focus for the Phillies' ace – and scheduled Opening Day starter.
"We were trying to bring it back more last year," Wheeler said. "I still throw it in the bullpens and stuff like that, but I've been trying to perfect it. It's been working."
Wheeler has a six-pitch arsenal, but only used the cutter on 9.7% of his pitches last season, per StatCast data. The cutter was used on 14.4% of his pitches in 2023 and 26.9% of his pitches in 2022, and has worked well for Wheeler in the past.
"I was trying to bring it back in the middle-to-end of last year, and so far this spring," Wheeler said. "It just opens up another pitch, trying to get something going down and into lefties. That's kind of the biggest thing."
Last spring, Wheeler was working on a sweeper -- a pitch he threw on 12.5% of his pitches in 2024. With the sweeper being Wheeler's third-most used pitch last season, bringing back the cutter on a more consistent basis would make Wheeler even more difficult to face.
Opponents hit just .226 on 62 at-bats against Wheeler's cutter last season. as opposed to .270 in 115 at-bats in 2023. The cutter is still the easiest pitch for opponents to hit against Wheeler (in terms of batting average), but that demonstrates how tough Wheeler is to hit.
Wheeler isn't committed to throwing the pitch on a regular basis again, yet the cutter is there if he needs it.
"It's still kind of hit or miss to be totally honest," Wheeler said. "We're taking it game to game. That's how it's going right now."
