PHILADELPHIA — Sometime before the next Grapefruit League game, in a baseball twist certain to rate bold headlines, Aaron Nola will become $180,000,000 wealthier. Maybe more. Maybe much more.
Those are the economics. That is the reality. That’s what a sturdy, right-handed pitcher (provided he stays healthy this postseason) with winning experience at age 30 will command in the free-agent market. A buck eighty over five installments. At least. The only question is whose pockets will be inside-outed in the exchange and, more to the relevance of the Phillies, whether they will be attached to the trousers of one John Middleton.
Nola hasn’t discussed that all season, and that was proper, professional behavior. He dedicated himself to doing what he could, even as the final hours of his four-year, $85,000,000 deal slipped past. He uncorked his third annual 32-start, 200-plus strikeout summer and never complained of a blister, a mangled oblique, the weather, the rotation, the dirt around the mound or his lame-duck status. He just went to work, earned another $16 million and made a reasonable contribution to another Phillies playoff season.
All of which brought him to Monday, and the hours before the Game 1 of the NLCS, and what may have been interpreted as a jolt of nostalgia, or at least a hint at where he would like to spend his next five or so years. Dragged into a conversation that he really tried to avoid for most of the season, Nola would come in high and tight with a different kind of pitch. Not that he had ever said anything else, but there, at a microphone, before a battalion of national baseball media sorts, he formalized his desire to keep working at Citizens Bank Park.
“Yeah, I hope so,” he said. “I really do. I love it here. Obviously it’s the only place I’ve been. I came up through some special times in the rebuilding era and got to witness and be a part of a lot of different type of teams.
“To be on a team like I am now, it’s really cool and special to see and to be a part of all the success and failures to get to where we are now.”
Around since 2016, he’s the longest-tenured Phillie, through four managers, some start-and-stop rebuilds, Middleton’s more recent spending explosion, a season with polyurethane patrons, a World Series, a taunting pitch clock and more than $58 million in Phillies cash. By this point, there are not many ways for his story to change, yet he will have opportunities to expand it. Tuesday, when he is to start Game 2 against the Diamondbacks, will be one of those opportunities.
Not that one start will impact his future earnings, but for every good reason the Phillies in particular will have to re-up him through age 35, there are plenty to give them pause. If ownership — or the fans — remain a little jittery about his postseason readiness, it’s because he had a history of sketchy late-season finishes. And he did allow 14 earned runs over his final 13 innings of last postseason, not escaping the fifth inning of any of his final three starts.
That, he followed by surrendering a career-high 32 home runs in the 2023 regular season, when he went 12-9 with a 4.46 ERA. A Nola plaque someday will be riveted to the Phillies’ Wall of Fame, but he’s just a one-time All-Star, and that was five years ago. That makes Middleton’s sole obligation to continue to monitor Nola’s effectiveness, not to just start throwing money his way as a mid-career gratuity.
Fortunately, for the Phillies, Nola has been fabulous so far in the postseason. He went seven in a 7-1 victory over Miami that ended the wild card round, then struck out nine in a 5-2 victory over the Braves in the NLDS. As he walked off the field that night, not knowing if he’d pitch another game for the Phillies, he received a standing ovation. Then he doffed his cap.
“I just want to soak it in as much as possible,” he said. “The fans were awesome, as usual, and coming off the mound, it felt like they turned up the notch a little bit, which was pretty awesome, pretty special.
“So I wanted to tip my cap and thank them. That’s why they’re the best, man. From Pitch 1 to the end of the game, they were standing up. It was fun. It was an amazing atmosphere.”
The atmosphere was amazing again Monday, even if spectator Travis Kelce was only photographed with his brother Jason, and not somebody else. It only grew more wild when Kyle Schwarber hit the first pitch from Zac Gallen for a home run, and Bryce Harper and Nick Castellanos added early solo shots.
Tuesday, Nola can do his part to grow that aura. His bank account, too.
“We know that D-backs are hot right now and they’re a good team,” he said. “No matter where we are, here or there , it’s going to be a dogfight. We’re ready for it.”
And for Nola, maybe many years more.
Contact Jack McCaffery at jmccaffery@delcotimes.com
Source: Berkshire mont
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