One of the better stories of the Philadelphia Phillies' 2025 season has been the team's reliable starting pitching. The one notable exception to this is the struggles of veteran starter Aaron Nola. This reached a new level of frustration on Wednesday night with Nola getting absolutely shelled, giving up nine runs, failing to make it out of the fourth inning. This continued a recent trend of Nola being unable to contribute.
This is a potential disaster for the Phillies with Nola only in year two of a seven-year deal. It isn't as if Philly can treat the situation as they typically would. The starter is struggling to the point that a demotion or release would be the obvious decisions if not for the massive contract. It leaves the future of the one failing piece in an otherwise solid rotation in question.
Phillies Cannot Afford to Continue to Start a Failing Aaron Nola
It seemed the veteran was perhaps turning a corner with an impressive start at the end of April. Nola pitched 7.0 innings against the Cubs, allowing one run. This was followed up by 6.0 shutout innings against the Diamondbacks. This was the version of the pitcher Philly fans had been expecting for the first weeks of the 2025 season.
This victory would be short-lived with the next 8.2 innings of work, including 13 earned runs, that included surrendering five home runs. It is as dismal a pitching stretch as Philly fans have seen in Nola's career.
Nola has a career 3.78 ERA that is just a tad lower than the 6.16 ERA the veteran currently holds. How the Phillies are going to answer this question remains up for debate. It seems the most likely path is continuing for the next weeks of the season, hoping Nola is able to pitch his way out of the current slump. You cannot afford to part ways with the veteran, and a bullpen demotion doesn't appear to be an option.
Aaron Nola continues to be arguably the most frustrating aspect of Philly's season, and must drastically improve or Philly will have no choice but to make a difficult decision.