Caleb Cotham says Cristopher Sánchez’s 50⅔ scoreless-innings run was “business as usual” for him, and he credits Zack Wheeler’s post-surgery form to command, pitch shape and an unusually low walk rate. In the same interview, Cotham frames Andrew Painter’s rook
When the Phillies were 9-19 and the losing got loud enough to cost their manager a job. it didn’t look like pitching could pull them out in time. But in the second week of June. they’re back in National League wild-card position with a relatively soft schedule until the All-Star break—and Caleb Cotham’s message is simple: this is what it looks like when starters regain what made them dangerous in the first place.
Cotham. in his sixth season as the Phillies’ pitching coach. spoke on Phillies Extra. The Inquirer’s baseball podcast. about Cristopher Sánchez. Zack Wheeler. Andrew Painter. and more. The interview was presented with a full video link on YouTube. and it follows the team’s unexpected climb after that early collapse.
Q: Cristopher Sánchez recently went 50⅔ innings without allowing a run, the longest streak by a left-handed pitcher since at least 1893. How much did you actually talk about the scoreless streak with him? And what was it like going through it with him?
A: “Yeah, we never talked about it. I think that probably sums him up as good as anything. I never noticed a difference [in him] from my perspective. Because it’s so good in his work; it’s so good in catch play; it’s so good in how he interacts with his teammates. how he shows up on non-start days in the dugout — he’s engaged in the game; how he treats his bullpens; how he treats his pregame; the routine on the table in the training room. the weight room. I never noticed a difference.”.
Cotham added that from his standpoint it felt almost routine—“So, I think that it was kind of ho-hum for me. It was business as usual.”—even as the streak became “pretty real” in real time.
He said the most impressive part wasn’t only the obvious stat line of not giving up runs. but that Sánchez never seemed to alter his approach. “From a process standpoint. ” Cotham said. “not even sniffing out a difference.” He acknowledged there was “a little bit [of a difference]. just kind of [how] he fought to finish innings here and there. ” like a shift he’d notice “for a third inning in this game.” But overall. Cotham framed it as consistency: “it was just kind of Sánchy doing Sánchy.”.
He also described how the streak started to feel like a question rather than a certainty. “And it got to a point where I didn’t know if he’ll ever give up a run.”
Q: If I told you in the offseason that we’d be sitting here in the second week of June and Zack Wheeler would be pitching like this after what he went through last season with the thoracic outlet syndrome and the surgery and everything else, what would your reaction have been?
A: “I’d be pretty thrilled.”
Cotham said Wheeler understands his own game the way only an elite veteran can: “Zack knows himself so well. and he knows his game. he knows what his kind of shortcomings are. what his strengths are.” He pointed to the stability around him. including J.T. Realmuto catching for him, and to the institutional memory Cotham has built with Wheeler over “six years.”.
“The people around him and his dedication — he has a very high desire to be really, really good; it bothers him to not be good,” Cotham said. “So, from that aspect, I’m not surprised.”
Still, he emphasized what exactly has returned in Wheeler’s execution: not just velocity, but pitch shape and command. “It is very impressive that the stuff is where it’s at. I think the velocity is one thing, but also just the pitch shapes, like the splitters. The splitter is arguably as good as it’s ever been. movement-wise.” He said the sweeper has been “very good. ” and that Wheeler has thrown “some of the better curveballs he’s thrown” in recent starts.
Cotham also highlighted the cutter, which he said “was kind of a pitch he didn’t quite have early in the year,” but “it’s gotten better lately.” He referenced a specific outing in Toronto where Wheeler threw “a really good” cutter that still produced a solid swing.
To Cotham, the key is what it produces when batters are in the strike zone: “the feel aspect and him not walking guys.” He said Wheeler’s walk rate is “as low as it’s been,” and added, “Last year was a really good year, and it’s low again.”
He still believes Wheeler can go further. “I still think there’s another level for him. I think he has another level he can go to,” Cotham said, before adding the obvious cost behind the comeback: “and it’s not easy. He makes it look very easy, and it’s not.”
Q: What’s the message to Andrew Painter right now? Because it sounds like the focus with him is really just on throwing strikes.
A: “It might not feel that way, but he has thrown strikes.”
Cotham said Painter’s first big-league chapter is tied to one basic lever—command—while acknowledging the environment the Phillies are operating in. Painter “is 80th-percentile [in] walk rate,” breaking into the big leagues “this year with ABS [the automated ball-strike system].”
Cotham argued that the modern strike zone setup changes what pitchers can get away with: “It would be way easier to walk more guys … it’s easier now than it ever has been to throw balls. The zone’s very small.”
Even with that, he credited Painter with holding the zone. “He’s held the zone. His superpower is he can land a bunch of offspeed for strikes. ” Cotham said. describing the target as “inside that. what’s the level 1.5.” He also said being able to throw “out of the zone with two strikes” is something they’ve discussed “a lot. ” pointing to its relationship with strikeout rates: “That speaks to the K-rate.”.
He said Painter is creating opportunities—“I think he’s getting a lot of opportunities at striking guys out”—but the finishing piece hasn’t fully clicked. “And it’s just not quite finishing them.”
Cotham explained why that matters for batters, even when a pitcher doesn’t win the instant, highlight swing-and-miss. “And it’s not always about the swing and miss on the heater,” he said. “Sometimes it’s just bouncing a breaking ball when you need to.”
In that version of the approach, the hitter is forced to react earlier, and the pitch sequence starts working differently. “I think if you do that, you pose a little bit bigger problem to the hitter. Then, they’re a little more apt to miss the first fastball.”
He returned to the fastball as Painter’s next unlock: “I think he can maximize his chance to get a swing and miss when he needs to go up.” He described the practical goal as “control of the zone and control of height”—not showing the batter the same ideal location again and again.
Cotham painted the alternative too: if the fastball climbs too predictably, hitters adjust. “If you throw the fastball up, up, up, up, up, their eyes have seen it,” he said. “The foul ball turns maybe into a ball in play, and kind of cascades up the damage hierarchy. And that foul ball might turn into whiff if it’s the first time they saw it.”.
His bottom line was that Painter’s command issues are also experience issues. “I think he has thrown strikes, he’s not walking them, but he’s not [striking them out] as much as we think he can, and I think he will. That just comes from a little bit of experience.”
Cotham also acknowledged how lonely it can feel when mechanics slip. “I think he’s held his own. There’s been games where he’s lost his zone, and the feeling on the mound where you don’t quite know where it’s going a little bit at times. That’s a pretty lonely feeling.”
But he emphasized Painter’s ability to grind through those moments, pointing to a specific example in Toronto: “he threw 40-42 pitches in the first inning the other day [in Toronto], and he found a way to get into the fifth.” Cotham called that “impressive” and said it will “help him long term.”
Together, the interview framed the Phillies’ turnaround as more than a standings story. Sánchez’s run of 50⅔ innings without a run. Wheeler’s return from thoracic outlet syndrome and surgery. and Painter’s steady progress through command all sit on the same foundation—pitching that looks calm from the outside and demanding from the inside.
Phillies Extra Caleb Cotham Cristopher Sánchez Zack Wheeler Andrew Painter thoracic outlet syndrome J.T. Realmuto ABS automated ball-strike system