Zack Wheeler will miss final start before All-Star break

Zack Wheeler will not start Sunday in the Phillies’ final game before the All-Star break because of back spasms.

Wheeler exited Tuesday’s win with back tightness after limiting the Dodgers to one run over five innings on 76 pitches. His turn was set to come up next in their series finale against Oakland to close out the first half but the Phillies are instead exercising caution by giving him extended time off.

They feel Wheeler will be ready to go once the second half begins on July 19 in Pittsburgh.

“We’re gonna be cautious,” manager Rob Thomson said Thursday afternoon. “We’ll line him up coming out of the break. We haven’t lined it up exactly yet but we’ll just take care of him.”

Sunday’s starter is TBD. The Phillies have Aaron Nola going Thursday with Ranger Suarez on Friday. Tyler Phillips will make his first major-league start on Saturday after striking out seven over four innings of relief this past weekend in Atlanta.

Michael Mercado is still on the active roster after being hit around by the Braves and could be an option to start Sunday, or the Phils could go make it a bullpen game. The unique timing just before the All-Star break gives them an opportunity to use up the entire relief corps.

“Don’t know,” Thomson said. “It all depends on what happens Friday and Saturday. Hopefully we don’t use a whole lot of our bullpen on Saturday and we can just run our guys out there and get them some work going into the break.”

It helps that the final series is against the Athletics, who have gone 4-25 on the road since May 12.

Catcher J.T. Realmuto will be sidelined until after the All-Star break as he recovers from a right knee meniscectomy. He continues to perform receiving drills and hit on the field before games and will fly down to Clearwater next week for further rehab, “then we’ll see what we have after the break,” Thomson said.