Philadelphia Phillies: Just how good has Aaron Nola been this year?

Philadelphia Phillies ace Aaron Nola has been firing on all cylinders.

Since he debuted back in 2015, Aaron Nola has been a key figure for the Philadelphia Phillies. With the exception of his lone “bad” year in 2016, the hard-throwing righty has been consistently putting up solid numbers each season.

Following his explosion two years ago, Nola burst to the top of the ace scene in the NL, joining elite names like Max Scherzer, Clayton Kershaw and Jacob deGrom. You can say that he took a step back in 2019 with his numbers pretty much spiking across the board, but the Phillies didn’t give him a ton of run support either.

After a shaky Opening Day start this year, Nola has been on a tear ever since. The Phillies ace is now rocking a 2.05 ERA and a 0.65 WHIP, has 37 total strikeouts, has walked just four batters, and boasts a K/BB ratio of 9.25.  His most recent start was no exception, as he went seven shutout innings giving up just three hits, two walks, and striking out eight.

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This game has followed two starts in which he had 10 and 12 K’s, but just did not get the run support he needed (which has been a prominent issue for the Phils over the last couple years). The Phillies have been hitting better this year though, pushing forward the hope that Nola would be better helped by his offense than ever before.

In his past couple starts, Nola has shown very impressive command over his arsenal, increasing his knuckle-curve ability exponentially while continuing to hit all the corners with his fastball (which still gets up to around 93 to 95 mph).

In those starts, he not only has a 0.90 ERA across 20 innings and is averaging 10 K’s per game, but he is limiting opponents to a slash line of .116/.153/.217. These are obviously outstanding numbers and shouldn’t be taken lightly by anyone.

In truth, Nola has been near un-hittable as of late. He continues to dazzle, as start after start he brings the heat that made him such a formidable pitcher during the 2018 season (when he finished top three in the Cy Young voting). That year, Nola went 17-6 with an ERA of 2.37, striking out 224 and only walking 58.

What made him look so good that year was a near mastery of both his two-seam fastball and his curveball, the two pitches that have been his bread and butter since he entered the league.  Since then, he really has improved his four-seamer as well as his changeup, and those two pitches have him once again at the top of his game, just like 2018.

At the end of the day, I don’t think that it’s too far out of the realm of possibility to say that if Nola continues on this trajectory this season, given how the season has started, he could easily be a finalist for the Cy Young award. If he turns it up a bit more, he could win the whole thing handily.

Nola is just too good of a pitcher for the Philadelphia Phillies to waste right now, and with his skills they once again have an ace that they haven’t had the caliber of since Roy Halladay was wearing red pinstripes.  The needle is pointing straight up for Nola, and right now? The sky is the limit.