Aaron Nola’s New Deal with the Philadelphia Phillies

A few days ago, starting pitcher Aaron Nola signed a brand-new deal to stay with the Philadelphia Phillies, a seven-year deal worth 172 million dollars. Nola has spent the past nine years with the Phillies. The right-handed pitcher helped the Phillies reach the World Series in 2022 and continued their success last season, but they lost in game seven of the NLCS to the Arizona Diamondbacks. Now that the 30-year-old pitcher is locked in on a new deal, he must be focused on helping the Phillies win a championship. 

In 32 starts last season, Aaron Nola put up a 12-9 record through almost 194 innings pitched. He posted a 4.46 ERA with 202 strikeouts. Nola averaged about six strikeouts per game, with a percentage of about 57 percent. One of Aaron’s best starts during the 2023 campaign was on July 4th against the Tampa Bay Rays. Nola pitched seven and one third innings, allowing one run on five hits, and a walk with 12 strikeouts. Back in 2018, Nola was an all-star and finished third in the NL Cy Young Award voting. 

Aaron has become one of the most proficient pitchers in baseball. Last season out of 3,087 pitches he threw 2,542 strikes. Nola’s five pitches in his arsenal are extremely effective. He used his 4-seam fastball, and curveball about 61 percent of the time during 2023. Nola’s fastball, sinker, and cutter hit the strike zone at least 50 percent of the time, if not more. Aaron is most likely to throw his curveball when the batter he is facing has two strikes to their name. Nola’s changeup is the pitch he uses the least, throwing it around 13 percent, but he strikes out a lot of batters with this pitch as it hangs on the outside corner for lefties or in the inside corner for right-handed batters. Aaron Nola certainly has a promising 2024 season ahead of him. If he produces or even performs better than his usual self, expect the Philadelphia Phillies to be a strong-caliber playoff team.