There’s nothing really “good” about Zack Wheeler’s surgery news that Philadelphia Phillies fans learned of over the weekend. But with Wheeler going under the knife for thoracic outlet decompression surgery in the near future, fans need to know exactly what Wheeler is dealing with.
He has venous thoracic outlet syndrome (vTOS), which sounds horrible, and is. The only good thing about Wheeler’s syndrome and pending surgery is that it has a better long-term outlook, per MLB.com’s Paul Casella, than the procedure for neurogenic TOS (nTOS), the version of the syndrome that affects the nerve and that has destroyed many MLB pitchers’ careers.
The news of Wheeler’s upcoming surgery came on the heels of a procedure to remove the blood clot near his right shoulder and officially ended his 2025 season. Multiple medical opinions led to the eventual diagnosis of venous TOS and the need for decompression surgery that removes a rib to relieve pressure on the subclavian vein, which carries blood from your arm to your heart, according to the Cleveland Clinic.
Zack Wheeler’s surgery still serious but not as scary as the other version of TOS
A recent well-known name to have had the same surgery that Wheeler will undergo includes Merrill Kelly in September 2020. He returned to make 27 starts in 2021, per Casella. Washington Nationals phenom Stephen Strasburg is perhaps the most well-known name to have undergone the surgery to treat neurogenic TOS — not the type Wheeler has, thankfully. We all know how that ended for Strasburg.
To clarify: It’s my understanding that venous *is* the incredibly dangerous one if left untreated, I’m speaking from a “if treated which has better success with regard to returning to pitching?” standpoint, for which venous has better outcomes than neurogenic
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Wheeler will need 6-8 months of recovery time. As for looking ahead to Wheeler’s eventual return, Phillies head athletic trainer Paul Buchheit provided some positive-sounding details over the weekend.
“So the recovery can be a little bit different,” Buchheit said, per Casella. “And the fact that with [Wheeler] … it was more of an acute issue — that’s in his favor that he wasn’t dealing with it for a long time prior to going under for the procedure.”
Phillies president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski also sounded optimistic (subscription required) in the face of the devastating news for Wheeler and the team, per Matt Gelb of The Athletic.
“We figure that he’ll come back in the six-to-eight month time period and come back and be the Zack Wheeler of old,” Dombrowski said, per Gelb. “That’s what we’ve been told. Unless something unanticipated happened, he’ll be able to come back and pitch like he has before this.”
Phillies fans hope Wheeler, most importantly, can get healthy for his and his family’s sake. When that’s taken care of, we will all have our fingers crossed and be waiting eagerly to see him return to the mound from which he has been so accustomed to dominating MLB lineups.
