The Phillies have fluctuated between last and next-to-last in Defensive Runs Saved for much of this season. But there is one pitcher who when he takes the mound, the defense seems to rise to his level.
That would be Zack Wheeler. The Phillies have 9 Runs Saved against the balls hit against him when he pitches. Here are their totals for their starting pitchers this season.
| Pitcher | Phillies Runs Saved |
| Zack Wheeler | 9 |
| Cristopher Sánchez | 0 |
| Jesus Luzardo | -3 |
| Andrew Painter | -5 |
| Aaron Nola | -10 |
If you want to put this another way: Wheeler’s .210 BABIP against is more than 100 points lower than each of the four of the other pitchers in that table.
Brief aside: Poor Aaron Nola.
While Wheeler ranks in the Top 10 in terms of best defensive support in baseball*, Nola is getting the worst. But that’s another subject for another time. For now, we’re focused on Wheeler’s dominance and how he’s allowing only 5.5 hits per 9 innings, a rate that ranks behind only Jacob Misiorowski and Shohei Ohtani (minimum 60 innings).
* The Diamondbacks have 13 Runs Saved for Eduardo Rodríguez, most in MLB.
The story here is in how well the Phillies field ground balls when Wheeler is pitching.
The Phillies have turned 66 of 78 grounders and bunts into outs with Wheeler pitching. The 85% out rate ranks first in MLB this season.
Highest Out Rate on Grounders & Bunts in 2026 – Minimum 75 Grounders & Bunts
| Pitcher | Team | Out Rate |
| Zack Wheeler | Phillies | 84.6% |
| Nolan McLean | Mets | 84.5% |
| Eduardo Rodríguez | Diamondbacks | 84.2% |
| Tomoyuki Sugano | Rockies | 83.7% |
| Yoshinobu Yamamoto | Dodgers | 82.6% |
By comparison, they turn 75% for Jesus Luzardo, 71% for Cristopher Sánchez, 70% for Aaron Nola, and only 58% for Andrew Painter.
But this isn’t new. Last year, the Phillies turned 83% of grounders and bunts into outs for Wheeler, the second-highest out rate by a team for a pitcher who yielded 100 grounders and bunts. Since the start of 2025, no team has a better rate for a pitcher than the Phillies 83.5% for Wheeler.
You can go directly around the infield and every Phillies regular has contributed to this. Bryce Harper has 5 Runs Saved for Wheeler since the start of last season. Bryson Stott and Trea Turner each have 4. Alec Bohm has 3.
You wouldn’t know from watching this play that Stott has -4 Runs Saved from fielding batted balls this season and Turner has -5.
Wheeler himself has 10 Runs Saved on batted balls over the last 6 seasons (though 0 this year). He sets a good example.
You may be wondering if Wheeler is getting easier grounders and bunts to field than other pitchers. The expected out rate on those balls hit against Wheeler this season is 72%, which is middle-of-the-pack overall (MLB average is 73%). It’s higher than for Sánchez (70%), and Painter (MLB-low 61%) but lower than the expected out rates for Luzardo (74%) and Nola (75%). The grounders and bunts for 2026 are also a harder collection of grounders and bunts than Wheeler faced in 2025 (75% expected out rate).
Wheeler is one of those cases in which the defensive performance of his team explains most of his ERA-FIP differential. He currently has a 2.11 ERA and a 3.48 FIP. But if you take the 9 runs the defense has saved for him and add that to his earned runs total for the season, his ERA would be 3.29.
This is not to downgrade Wheeler’s performance in any way, merely to point out that the components of a potentially great season require a level of cooperation from his teammates that others may not be getting.
