Categories: Phillies Nuggets with Tim Kelly

Aaron Nola: ‘Whatever they need from me, I’ll be ready for’

Will Aaron Nola start Game 2 or Game 3 of the NLDS? (Grace Del Pizzo/Phillies Nation)

Since the start of the 2017 season, Aaron Nola leads all pitchers with 1,432 2/3 innings pitched in the regular season. He returned to the Philadelphia Phillies in free agency last offseason on a seven-year/$172 million deal. A lot of pitchers with his resume would bristle at not getting to start in the first two games of a postseason series.

Not Nola.

At least he won’t if that’s how things play out. While Nola didn’t give away whether he expects to start Game 2 of Game 3 of the NLDS, he was asked Tuesday if he cares which of the two he’s tabbed for.

“No, no. Whatever they need from me, I’ll be ready for,” Nola said.

Nola did tell On Pattison‘s Anthony SanFilippo that he’ll throw a bullpen session on Wednesday, and then “probably throw a side this weekend.” If Nola expected to start Game 2 on Sunday, he probably wouldn’t be throwing a bullpen this weekend. If he expected to start Game 3 on Tuesday, that timeline would make a lot more sense.

Zack Wheeler will either finish first or second in NL Cy Young Award voting. So naturally, he’ll get the ball in Game 1 of the NLDS. There’s been a debate the last few weeks about whether Nola or Cristopher Sánchez will pitch the second game.

Much has been made about the difference in ERA Sánchez has at home (2.21) as opposed to the road (5.02) this season. With those splits, it may make sense to start Sánchez at home at Citizens Bank Park in Game 2, using Nola either at American Family Field in Milwaukee or Citi Field in New York in Game 3.

Beyond the home/road splits, there’s a case to be made that Sánchez should just start Game 2 because he’s had a better season than Nola. That’s not an indictment on Nola, who posted a 3.57 ERA across 199 1/3 innings in 2024. But Sánchez was an All-Star, posted a 3.32 ERA and finished in a tie for sixth among all starters in baseball with a 4.7 WAR, per FanGraphs. There’s more than one team in the postseason who would be using Sánchez in Game 1, let alone Game 2.

Ultimately, one of the reasons that the Phillies enter the postseason as one of the perceived World Series favorites is because they may have the luxury of not using Nola — a pitcher with 48 2/3 innings of postseason experience over the last two years — until Game 3 if that’s what they choose to do.