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Dave Dombrowski on Aaron Nola: ‘He’s our priority’

Aaron Nola is set to become a free agent. (Photo by Andy Lewis/Icon Sportswire)

It sounds like re-signing Aaron Nola is priority No. 1 for the Philadelphia Phillies this offseason.

In an end-of-season press conference on Thursday at Citizens Bank Park, president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski said that the Phillies’ No. 1 area of need is a “starting pitcher of quality.” It will either be Nola or someone else.

The Phillies previously tried to sign Nola to a contract extension in spring training, but the two sides were far apart and the Phillies ended negotiations before the end of camp.

Despite an up-and-down regular season for Nola, the Phillies still have a high level of interest in retaining him.

“I’d say he’s our priority to try and sign,” Dombrowski said. “Unfortunately, and I don’t mean this as a negative or positive, it’s just the reality. We didn’t sign him in spring training. We would have liked to have done that. We didn’t get it done. I can’t tell you that I feel 100% confident that we’re going to get it done, but we would like to sign him and we’ll be aggressive in trying to make that happen.”

It was fair to wonder if that was still the case. Nola came into this season fresh off a top-five finish in National League Cy Young Award voting. He pitched to a 3.25 ERA, threw a combined 230 2/3 innings between regular and postseason, more than any other starter in baseball, and posted an insane 8.10 strikeout-to-walk ratio in 2022.

He regressed in 2023, posting a 4.46 ERA. He didn’t possess the same stellar command he had in previous seasons. At times, he struggled to get through five innings and questions were raised near the end of the regular season regarding his standing as the team’s No. 2 starter heading into the postseason.

Thanks to some timely mechanical adjustments, Nola reached peak form in October. He pitched to a 2.35 ERA across four postseason starts in 2023.

Most importantly, Nola did not miss a start due to injury in his contract year. It’s a streak that dates back to 2017. That along with his top-of-the-rotation upside will lead to a massive payday.

The Phillies will be one of Nola’s most aggressive suitors, but they will not be alone. The St. Louis Cardinals reportedly have strong interest. Other big market teams in need of starting pitching, the Braves, Dodgers and Cubs for example, could enter the bidding. Maybe the Texas Rangers look to continue to add to their stockpile of free agent starting pitchers.

The Phillies want Nola, but there is a price point where other options need to be considered. The hope is that it doesn’t get to that, but free agency is weird.

“But if not, hey, I respect the player’s ability to test free agency,” Dombrowski said. “Get whatever dollars they possibly can that meets their needs. It’s a situation where if that happens, I’d be sad, but we’d have to go ahead. He wouldn’t be the first guy I lost in free agency, but you still have to plow forward. You still have to go ahead and try to get somebody to try and help you. Again, our goal is to try to keep him and have him with us.”

The free agent market is short on alternatives to Nola. Teams in on the Shohei Ohtani sweepstakes will bet that he’s back on the mound in 2025, but he’ll be a DH in 2024. Julio Urias is under investigation for a domestic violence incident.

The Padres’ Blake Snell and Japanese pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto are the top available arms in free agency outside of Nola. Sonny Gray, Eduardo Rodriguez and Jordan Montgomery are also free agents at the end of this season.

Nola said after Game 7 that he wants to return to the Phillies next season.

“I hope I’m back, for sure, but I don’t know what the future holds yet,” Nola said.

He also said at the time that he wasn’t sure if the Phillies wanted to bring him back or not.

Now it’s clear both sides have interest in a reunion. It’s only a matter of bridging the gap.