On Wednesday evening, Philadelphia Phillies beginning pitcher Aaron Nola gained his tenth recreation of the season as a part of the Phillies’ 9-4 victory on the Toronto Blue Jays. It is the fifth time in Nola’s 9 main league seasons that he is reached double-digit wins.
Nonetheless, Nola can chalk up this determination to the offense, which lastly got here alive with 9 runs and 11 hits after a three-game hunch. Nola turned in one other pedestrian outing, permitting 4 runs over 5 innings with seven strikeouts and 4 walks. His ERA this season is 4.58, the best within the Phillies’ beginning rotation.
The Phillies shall be going through a dilemma this offseason. Nola is a free agent and is anticipated to earn much more than his present five-year, $56-million contract. However given his efficiency during the last 5 seasons, is he actually price it?
Nola’s present contract was signed within the 2018/19 offseason following a profession yr. At age 25, he gained 17 video games, his ERA was 2.37, and he completed third on the Nationwide League Cy Younger Award poll. An extension was a no brainer. However since 2019, Nola’s document is 47-42, and his cumulative ERA is 3.96. He hasn’t gained greater than 12 video games in any of these 5 seasons.
Granted, Nola has stable numbers in a number of classes throughout that point. Since 2019, in line with Stathead from Baseball Reference, he is began extra video games than any main league pitcher, whereas additionally rating third in innings pitched and second in strikeouts. He completed seventh in N.L. Cy Younger voting in 2020, and fourth in 2022. However solely six pitchers have misplaced extra video games and allowed extra hits than Nola in that span, solely three have allowed extra earned runs, and simply 5 have surrendered extra dwelling runs.
Whereas he pitched two stellar video games within the postseason final yr, his one NLCS begin and two World Collection begins have been poor. After pitching 12.2 shutout innings in his first two playoff begins, Nola did not make it out of the fifth inning in any of the following three video games. His ERA over these final three begins was a brutal 9.69. In recreation two of the NLCS in San Diego, Nola blew a 4-0 second-inning lead. In recreation one of many World Collection in Houston, he allowed 5 runs over the primary three innings.
Nola is not getting any youthful, both. As beforehand talked about, that is his ninth main league season. He turned 30 in June. Whereas he is nonetheless dependable when it comes to innings pitched and strikeouts, he has but to regain his 2018 kind, and has been supplanted by Zack Wheeler because the beginning ace. The Phillies have to assume it over this offseason earlier than mechanically giving Nola one other extension. Their cash may very well be higher spent elsewhere.
