September 30, 2024
Geoff Burke/USA Today Sports
Zack Wheeler will likely finish second for the NL CY Young.
Right-hander Aaron Nola exited after a sixth-inning leadoff triple in Sunday’s regular-season finale, just two outs short of a notable milestone for starting pitchers. Zack Wheeler, Philadelphia’s ace, tossed 6 ⅓ innings on Saturday to reach 200 total innings pitched for the regular season in his final start on Saturday. The Phillies gave Nola a chance to match it.
But after center fielder Brandon Marsh misplayed the three-base hit to begin the bottom of the sixth, the Phillies pulled the plug. Nola threw five innings of three-run ball in a 6-3 win over Washington at Nationals Park. He finished his regular season at 199 ⅓ innings.
Although Nola came up short of making himself and Wheeler the first duo of Phillies pitchers to reach 200 innings in a season since Cole Hamels and A.J. Burnett in 2014, he turned in another impressive, strong season. He and Wheeler seem to hover around that 200-inning mark every year.
A pair of modern workhorses in a game where starting pitchers no longer go deep into games or make all their starts, their stable presence is perhaps the most valuable part of the Phillies roster. Wheeler and Nola are the backbone of this National League East-winning club and will be paramount once again as Philadelphia heads to the postseason.
Wheeler had a 2.57 ERA in 32 starts this season, leading the National League in WHIP (0.955). He’s likely poised for his second career runner-up finish for the NL Cy Young Award behind Braves left-hander Chris Sale. He’s continued to perform like one of the best pitchers in baseball.
The longest-tenured Phillie on the roster, Nola posted a 3.61 ERA in 33 starts this year. The constant on this team, he’s the only pitcher in the major leagues to pitch at least 180 innings in each of the last four seasons. He doesn’t dominate as much as Wheeler and some of his starts can frustrate, but Nola’s ability to take the ball every turn in the rotation provides so much for Philadelphia.
Since Wheeler signed a five-year free-agent contract with the Phillies before the 2020 season, no pitcher in the majors has thrown more innings than he and Nola. In fact, Wheeler and Nola are the leaders in innings pitched since 2018, two years before Wheeler left the New York Mets for Philadelphia. Nola has thrown 1,264 ⅔ innings over the last seven regular seasons, while Wheeler has thrown 1,207. The two make up a remarkably durable tandem, one that the Phillies have leaned on to guide them into the playoffs for three straight seasons.
The pitchers’ emergence as the two big-league starters most capable of handling volume and taking down significant innings is almost unbelievable when considering how their careers started. Wheeler — once one of the top prospects in all of baseball, headlining the Mets’ return from the Giants in a blockbuster trade for Carlos Beltrán in 2011 — struggled to stay healthy for a good portion of his early career in New York.
He missed the entire 2015 season after undergoing Tommy John surgery and was limited to only 17 starts in 2017 with multiple injuries. Despite his obvious talent, his injury risk was an issue.
Nola, a former first-round pick and top prospect himself, suffered a mild UCL sprain in his second season in 2016, a seriously concerning injury for a young pitcher. He managed to avoid Tommy John surgery and come back strong in 2017; he hasn’t really missed a beat since.
There’s certainly a world where these early-career injuries hinder the long-term outlooks of both Wheeler and Nola. Instead, the pitchers bounced back from the setbacks to become some of the most reliable arms in the entire sport. They’ve developed into a special breed of pitcher, giving the Phillies a unique advantage at the top of their rotation.
Wheeler and Nola’s production has provided a great deal of wiggle room in the regular season over the past few regular seasons, and the two frontline starters helped carry the Phillies to the World Series in 2022 and NL Championship Series in 2023. The team will lean on them in the playoffs again as it begins play in the NL Division Series on Saturday at Citizens Bank Park.
Wheeler will take the ball in Game 1, and either Nola or left-hander Cristopher Sánchez — the breakout left-hander with drastic home-road splits — will start Game 2 in South Philadelphia. Ranger Suárez will pitch a potential Game 4.
Suárez has struggled of late, and Philadelphia will likely have a quick hook on him in any game he starts. Sánchez shined throughout this season, but only has one brief playoff appearance under his belt; the Phillies may be careful with how long they allow him to pitch as well.
That’s where Wheeler and Nola will be tasked with picking up the slack. Without much pitching depth to add length outside the rotation, Wheeler and Nola will be relied upon to go deeper into games in the postseason. With five trusted relievers and a bit of a wild card in José Alvarado, the top two starters will need to eat innings to keep the Phillies bullpen fresh.
If any two pitchers are up for it, Wheeler and Nola would be the ones. They’re not quite Robin Roberts or Steve Carlton throwing over 300 innings or even Roy Halladay throwing over 250. But in a changed game, they take the mound more than any of their contemporaries with a throwback attitude to starting.
That’s a special thing to have from one starter, let alone two. It’s a blessing for a Phillies team that hopes to ride its rotation to a World Series title.
