MLB free agency this winter has a relatively short pool of elite pitchers available, particularly with Shohei Ohtani unable to take the mound until 2025. That’s left Blake Snell, Aaron Nola and eventually Yoshinobu Yamamoto as the top starters on the open market.
Early interest in Snell, who was voted the 2023 National League Cy Young Award winner, has included the Los Angeles Dodgers, San Francisco Giants and more teams. He was also reported as a potential fallback option if the Phillies didn’t make progress in contract talks with Nola.
The sides were recently said to be far apart in negotiations but closed the gap over recent days.
According to Jon Heyman of the New York Post, Nola re-signed with the Phillies on a seven-year contract worth $172 million:
Nola and Phillies have a deal. $172M, 7 years.
— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) November 19, 2023
Nola had somewhat of a down 2023 season that saw him post a 4.46 ERA across 193.2 innings pitched. However, he still managed to finish with 202 strikeouts to go along with a 3.9 WAR while making 32 starts for a second consecutive season.
Last year, Nola finished fourth in NL Cy Young Award voting.
Over the course of his career, the 30-year-old has established himself as a frontline starter capable of throwing at least 200 innings. Nola has reached that benchmark in three of his seven fulls seasons, and logged 180 innings or more in another two of his seasons.
He owns a career 3.72 ERA, 3.38 FIP, 10.01 strikeouts per nine, 1.13 WHIP and 33.9 WAR.
Aaron Nola wanted to re-sign with Phillies
When allowing himself to briefly look ahead to free agency, Nola made it clear last month his preference was to remain with the Phillies.
“Yeah, I hope so,” Nola answered when asked if he’d be back with the team. “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 ask and getting 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.”
The Phillies selected Nola with the seventh overall pick in the 2014 MLB Draft.
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