Zachary Harrison Wheeler (born May 30, 1990) is an American professional baseball pitcher for the Philadelphia Phillies of Major League Baseball (MLB).
Between 2013 and 2019, he played in MLB for the New York Mets. Wheeler was born to a baseball-playing family in Smyrna, Georgia, but moved to Dallas, Georgia, shortly before the start of high school.
There, he pitched for East Paulding High School, leading the team to a state playoff appearance in 2009 and pitching a no-hitter against Mill Creek High School.
The San Francisco Giants selected Wheeler sixth overall in the 2009 MLB Draft, and he elected to sign with the team rather than honoring his previous college baseball commitment to Kennesaw State. Wheeler played for the Giants’ minor league teams in 2010 and 2011 before he was traded to the Mets in July 2011.
Wheeler boasts a five-pitch repertoire, consisting of a four-seam fastball, a sinker, a curveball, a slider, and a changeup. Baseball analysts consider Wheeler’s four-seam fastball to be his best pitch, boasting a comparable release path to retired Phillies ace Cole Hamels.
In 2019, his average fastball speed of 96.8 mph (155.8 km/h) was much higher than the MLB average of 93.4 mph (150.3 km/h).
Wheeler and his wife Dominique have one child together. Their son, Wesley Wheeler, was born on July 20, 2020, shortly after the pandemic-shortened 2020 MLB season.