The Phillies need their two cornerstone pitchers to get back to form

The Phillies need their two cornerstone pitchers to get back to form originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

The Philadelphia Phillies made some interesting moves today, releasing Taijuan Walker, and adding Nolan Hoffman from Triple-A Lehigh Valley. Aside from that, there are two more things that they need to really get themselves back in contention in the National League East.

Their two cornerstone starting pitchers, Aaron Nola and Zack Wheeler need to get themselves back to form. For Wheeler, he has seen a significant decline in velocity in his five rehab starts, and Nola's underwhelming performance's continue.

Wheeler is set to return on Saturday against Atlanta, and hopefully this Phillies team will be out of this losing streak by then. He is coming off of a devastating injury and had thoracic outlet surgery in August, ending his 2025 campaign.

He recently allowed the New York Yankees top-prospect George Lombard Jr. to go yard against him in one of his rehab starts on April 19. If that does not light a fire under Wheeler and his impending return to the mound in the Majors, I don't know what will.

Nola has been in the rotation, but it has not been a great start to his 2026. At 1-2, and an ERA hovering over five, he has not been able to give these Phillies bats any kind of support as they themselves are going through a bit of a dry spell at the plate.