Philly’s Smartest Signing! Phillies Receive Glowing Re-Grade for Last Winter’s Blockbuster Deal
Spring Training has kicked off for the Philadelphia Phillies and the franchise will be hoping to bounce back from a disappointing end to the 2024 campaign.
Despite not making a lot of waves or headlines this offseason, it has been a quietly strong offseason for the Phillies. Even though they had a disappointing early exit in the National League Division Series, this was a team that was very good last year.
This winter, one of the areas that Philadelphia addressed was in their starting rotation. Unfortunately, Taijuan Walker was one of the worst starting pitchers in baseball last year and the Phillies knew that replacing him would be something that they needed to accomplish this winter.
They were able to achieve this with the trade that brought in the talented southpaw Jesus Luzardo from the Miami Marlins.
Luzardo will be joining what could arguably be the best pitching staff in baseball. Philadelphia has been fortunate to have two aces at the top of their rotation, and it is the main reason why they have been successful in the past few years. One of those star pitchers has been Aaron Nola.
Zachary D. Rymer of Bleacher Report recently re-graded the Phillies’ decision to sign Aaron Nola last offseason to a seven-year, $172 million contract. He gave them the excellent grade of an ‘A’ after another strong season from the right-hander.
It was another great campaign for the veteran right-hander in 2024. Nola was able to total a (14-8) record, a 3.57 ERA and 197 strikeouts. For the last four seasons since the COVID year, the right-hander has been a workhorse for the rotation and picks the ball up every five days.
He has been able to total at least 180 innings pitched in the past four seasons, and excluding the Covid year in 2022, that stretch is six straight years.
Especially in baseball today, a pitcher being able to work deep into games and pitch as many innings as Nola does is hard to find. Generally, starters have short leashes when it comes to facing the lineup for a third time. However, that isn’t the case with the veteran right-hander.
At 31 years old, there should still be plenty of good years for Nola in Philadelphia. The Phillies have done well of late with their long-term contracts and this one is off to a good start as well.
With the start of the 2025 campaign right around the corner, the rotation of Philadelphia is once again shaping up to be a strength of the team.
