Phillies Forced to Rely on Offseason Addition Sooner Than Planned

After having Opening Day moved because of weather, the Philadelphia Phillies have had to make some adjustments to their starting rotation.

Mar 15, 2024; West Palm Beach, Florida, USA; Philadelphia Phillies starting pitcher Spencer Turnbull (22) throws a pitch during the fourth inning against the Houston Astros at The Ballpark of the Palm Beaches. Mandatory Credit: Reinhold Matay-USA TODAY Sports / Reinhold Matay-USA TODAY Sports

The Philadelphia Phillies thought that they were already going to be one game into the season by the time March 29 rolled around, but weather caused a change of plans.

Without the off day that was originally scheduled for Friday, they'll play three straight games against their archrival Atlanta Braves.

While everyone is happy baseball is back, the early schedule movement has caused the Phillies to adjust how their starting rotation will be set.

The original plan was to have Zack Wheeler start Opening Day on Thursday and give him his normal amount of rest before returning to the mound on April 2 against the Cincinnati Reds. That would have allowed Philadelphia to use Wheeler, Aaron Nola, and Ranger Suarez during the opener series before getting back to the top of their rotation again early in the Reds matchup.

That's no longer the case.

According to Todd Zolecki of MLB.com, they will now give their offseason signing Spencer Turnbull the ball on April 2 and have Wheeler pitch the following day.

The Phillies wanted to ease Turnbull into the season since he's only ever thrown over 100 innings one time in his career. He's also coming off Tommy John surgery that caused him to miss all of 2022 and limited him to 31 innings last year.

Having Taijuan Walker start on the injured list didn't help things either and is the reason why the right-handed addition was given an opportunity in their starting rotation.

Outside of this change, though, the rest of the starters won't be affected.

Christopher Sanchez is still scheduled to make his debut on Monday against Cincinnati to start that series and everyone will be operating on normal rest.