Wheeler's live BP is another positive step

CLEARWATER, Fla. -- Zack Wheeler tossed a live batting practice session Saturday in Clearwater, the latest step in his quest to be ready by the opening week of the season.

Wheeler entered camp behind schedule after throwing an MLB-most 213 1/3 innings last season en route to finishing second in NL Cy Young Award voting. He experienced right shoulder soreness when he started throwing again in December, then missed a few days last week because of a minor bout with the flu.

Now fully healthy, Wheeler went through his entire pregame routine on Saturday. He tossed in the outfield before heading to the bullpen at BayCare Ballpark, where he threw all his pitches -- and felt good doing so. Wheeler then took the stadium mound and faced a trio of hitters -- including Bryce Harper -- over what essentially amounted to an inning's worth of work.

"I threw it all in the bullpen and all that type of stuff," Wheeler said. "But cutters up and in to lefties -- I wasn't going to hit Bryce. We'll lay off that stuff for now."

As for whether his next appearance will come in Grapefruit League action, that's something Wheeler and the staff will discuss in the coming days.

With less than two weeks until the Phillies' April 8 season opener against the A's, Wheeler remains optimistic that he'll be ready the first time through the rotation, though he acknowledged that decision is ultimately out of his hands.

"It's not my choice. It's just whatever's better for the team," Wheeler said. "If I can only go an inning or two and [we have to] blow out the bullpen, that's probably not the way to go."

That said, if Wheeler can extend out to going even a few innings, that opens up the possibility of simply piggybacking another pitcher off his abbreviated start. It also could help that rosters might reportedly expand by two players for the first month of the season due to the shortened Spring Training, though that change has not yet been officially announced by MLB and the MLBPA.

"I think it does," Wheeler said when asked if the additional roster spots would help his case to crack the Opening Day roster. "But at the same time, you can only send guys up and down so many times during the year, so this is something that they're going to have to sit down and figure out I guess, whether it's another starter piggybacking me or something like that. We'll all just have to figure it out."