WASHINGTON (AP) — The Philadelphia Phillies placed ace Zack Wheeler on the 15-day injured list Saturday with a blood clot in his right arm.
Dave Dombrowski, the president of baseball operations for the Phillies, said after a 2-0 loss at Washington that Wheeler had been diagnosed with a “right upper extremity blood clot.”
“There's not a lot that we can say on it at this time,” said Dombrowski, who commended doctors for finding the clot. “It could have been a much more trying situation than it is.”
Phillies head athletic trainer Paul Buchheit said Wheeler had been feeling better after some right shoulder soreness caused him to push back a start earlier this month. But that changed Friday.
“He felt a little heaviness," Buchheit said. "So, the doctors here were great in helping to diagnose and expedite that diagnosis this morning.”
Buchheit said he didn’t think Wheeler’s present condition had anything to do with his previous stiffness. He said there is a wide variety of treatments available, but he declined to get into specifics.
Dombrowski said Wheeler would be evaluated further in Philadelphia.
Wheeler pitched for the NL East leaders on Friday and was limited to five innings for the second consecutive start. The right-hander allowed two runs and four hits at Washington.
The 35-year-old Wheeler, who made his third All-Star team last month, is 10-5 with a 2.71 ERA in 24 starts this season. He has a major league-high 195 strikeouts in 149 2/3 innings. He has thrown at least 192 innings in three of the previous four seasons.
Phillies slugger Kyle Schwarber said it was most important to get Wheeler back healthy.
“It’s a scary situation, right? ... Just want to get him back in here and hear from him,” Schwarber said. "Hopefully it’s not going to be too serious. Get him in here and get him healthy.
“You know, baseball is baseball, and when it comes to someone’s health like that, we need him healthy first. You know, he’s got a family, so we want to get him feeling good for them and get him back to speed whenever we can.”
The Phillies will activate right-hander Aaron Nola from the injured list to start Sunday against the Nationals. Philadelphia planned to go to a six-man rotation with Nola’s return, but instead will stick with a conventional five-man approach.
“Because we’re adding Nola tomorrow, everybody’s getting sort of getting an extra day,” manager Rob Thomson said. “Then we have an off day (Thursday), and we get another extra day. We’re in good shape and that’s why you have depth."
“We don’t know the timeline,” Thomson said. “I’m thinking a lot about Zack and his family, because it’s not a hamstring injury or something like that. But I feel good about the depth that we have. If we have to go to a sixth, it could be (prospect Andrew) Painter. It could be somebody else. We just have to carry on.”
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Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Zack Wheeler throws during the first inning of a baseball game against the Washington Nationals, Friday, Aug. 15, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Daniel Kucin Jr.)
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. forces in the Caribbean Sea have seized another sanctioned oil tanker that the Trump administration says has ties to Venezuela, part of a broader U.S. effort to take control of the South American country’s oil.
The U.S. Coast Guard boarded the tanker, named Veronica, early Thursday, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem wrote on social media. The ship had previously passed through Venezuelan waters and was operating in defiance of President Donald Trump’s "established quarantine of sanctioned vessels in the Caribbean,” she said.
U.S. Southern Command said Marines and sailors launched from the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford to take part in the operation alongside a Coast Guard tactical team, which Noem said conducted the boarding as in previous raids. The military said the ship was seized “without incident.”
Several U.S. government social media accounts posted brief videos that appeared to show various parts of the ship’s capture. Black-and-white footage showed at least four helicopters approaching the ship before hovering over the deck while armed troops dropped down by rope. At least nine people could be seen on the deck of the ship.
The Veronica is the sixth sanctioned tanker seized by U.S. forces as part of the effort by Trump’s administration to control the production, refining and global distribution of Venezuela’s oil products and the fourth since the U.S. ouster of Venezuela President Nicolás Maduro in a surprise nighttime raid almost two weeks ago.
The Veronica last transmitted its location on Jan. 3 as being at anchor off the coast of Aruba, just north of Venezuela’s main oil terminal. According to the data it transmitted at the time, the ship was partially filled with crude.
Days later, the Veronica became one of at least 16 tankers that left the Venezuelan coast in contravention of the quarantine that U.S. forces have set up to block sanctioned ships, according to Samir Madani, the co-founder of TankerTrackers.com. He said his organization used satellite imagery and surface-level photos to document the ship movements.
The ship is currently listed as flying the flag of Guyana and is considered part of the shadow fleet that moves cargoes of oil in violation of U.S. sanctions.
According to its registration data, the ship also has been known as the Gallileo, owned and managed by a company in Russia. In addition, a tanker with the same registration number previously sailed under the name Pegas and was sanctioned by the Treasury Department for being associated with a Russian company moving cargoes of illicit oil.
As with prior posts about such raids, Noem and the military framed the seizure as part of an effort to enforce the law. Noem argued that the multiple captures show that “there is no outrunning or escaping American justice.”
Speaking to reporters at the White House later Thursday, Noem declined to say how many sanctioned oil tankers the U.S. is tracking or whether the government is keeping tabs on freighters beyond the Caribbean Sea.
“I can’t speak to the specifics of the operation, although we are watching the entire shadow fleet and how they’re moving,” she told reporters.
But other officials in Trump's Republican administration have made clear they see the actions as a way to generate cash as they seek to rebuild Venezuela’s battered oil industry and restore its economy.
Trump met with executives from oil companies last week to discuss his goal of investing $100 billion in Venezuela to repair and upgrade its oil production and distribution. His administration has said it expects to sell at least 30 million to 50 million barrels of sanctioned Venezuelan oil.
Associated Press writer Ben Finley contributed to this report.
This story has been corrected to show the Veronica is the fourth, not the third, tanker seized by U.S. forces since Maduro’s capture and the ship also has been known as the Gallileo, not the Galileo.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem speaks with reporters at the White House, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem speaks with reporters at the White House, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem speaks with reporters at the White House, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem speaks with reporters at the White House, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem speaks with reporters at the White House, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem speaks during a press conference, Thursday, Jan. 8, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem speaks at a news conference at Harry Reid International Airport, Nov. 22, 2025, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/Ronda Churchill, File)
