Philadelphia Phillies starter Zack Wheeler made it loud and clear to everyone that he wasn’t going to be on the All-Star Game roster. Wheeler was offered a late invitation to join the National League roster as an injury replacement. He said he felt disrespected and didn’t want to be a fifth option. By doing this, Wheeler dealt himself a fatal blow to his Hall of Fame chances.
Wheeler Had An All-Star Case, But Not A Cooperstown Lock
Wheeler’s grievance is completely valid in the short term because he was disrespected. Statistically speaking, he’s having a career-best season in winning percentage, ERA, and WHIP. He’s not as dominant as other NL pitchers like Shohei Ohtani, Jacob Misiorowski, or teammate Cristopher Sánchez, who leads the NL in WAR for pitchers. Wheeler does have a nice string of recent performances, though with a combined 34 strikeouts in his last three outings. What’s more validating for the pitcher’s All-Star case is that he has a 10-1 record in 15 starts.
Despite Wheeler’s hot season, it won’t be enough to solidify his case for Cooperstown. He plans to retire in 2027, and while he will have approximately 12 seasons completed, the right-hander doesn’t have any huge career totals. He doesn’t have a legendary number of strikeouts or a stellar number of wins like other HOF pitchers.
Wheeler also has limited All-Star selections in his career. He has been to the All-Star Game three times, but for a pitcher, that’s below average. Only 17 of the 86 pitchers in the HOF have three or fewer All-Star selections in their careers, with names including Pedro Martinez, Satchel Paige, and Catfish Hunter. They were able to get into the HOF with few All-Star selections, though, because they have other accomplishments and longer peaks to back up their HOF inductions.
In his 12 seasons so far, Wheeler has not won any MVPs, World Series rings, or Cy Young Awards. That’s because his dominance didn’t come consistently until he started playing for the Phillies. When he was with the New York Mets, his numbers weren’t elite or award-worthy every year. His ERA fluctuated between a respectable 3.31 and a struggling 5.21 across five seasons. The three-time All-Star also missed the entire 2015 and 2016 seasons due to Tommy John surgery and recovery setbacks. The Mets had overall success during that brief stretch, but he was absent, preventing him from having another reliable season.
Every Accolade Matters For Cooperstown
That’s what makes the Phillie’s All-Star rejection so damaging for his chance at Cooperstown. All-Star selections aren’t the deciding factor for Cooperstown, but it’s better to have them when a pitcher has no other accolades.
Pitchers who accumulate legendary numbers like Clayton Kershaw, Max Scherzer, and Justin Verlander don’t worry about a few All-Star snubs. For pitchers like Wheeler, who are trying to cement their names in baseball history before retirement, every All-Star nod carries more weight. Even as an injury replacement, an All-Star selection still counts the same in the record books. Voters won’t see an asterisk as to how a player got there. Instead, they’ll simply see another All-Star appearance on his resume, or, in this case, the lack of one.
Wheeler had every right to feel slighted, but he will regret it when his name appears on the HOF ballot. Years from now, Cooperstown voters won’t revisit the validity of his being invited as a fifth option or debate whether he was right to decline it. They’ll evaluate what’s on paper, and right now, his margin for error is already slim. Turning down an All-Star selection, regardless of how it came, removes a valuable accolade from a career that needs as many as it can get.
