Sep 13, 2024; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA; Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Aaron Nola (27) throws a pitch during the fifth inning against the New York Mets at Citizens Bank Park. Mandatory Credit: Bill Streicher-Imagn Images Bill Streicher
Aaron Nola hasn't always pitched at a Cy Young level in his career — he certainly has at some points — but he's consistently taken the ball every five days.
But after a disastrous start Wednesday that saw him give up 12 hits and nine earned runs over just 3 2/3 innings, Nola is headed to the 15-day injured list with a right ankle sprain. It marks the first time that the 31-year-old will go on the IL with an injury — not COVID — since the 2017 season. He sustained the injury doing agility work in the outfield during the series at George M. Steinbrenner Field in Tampa Bay earlier this month.
The move is backdated to May 15, and the Phillies don't expect it to be a long-term injury. Nonetheless, it's surprising given that Nola has been this era's most durable pitcher. Since the start of the 2018 season, Nola leads baseball with 899 2/3 innings pitched.
"Yeah, I mean, it's frustrating," Nola acknowledged Friday afternoon. "I haven't been on the IL in a long time. How I go about everything is I try to be as healthy as possible so I can be prepared and make my starts every single time I'm given the baseball.
"It's just something that happened when I was ... non-baseball related, you know? Just trying to do a lot of similar stuff that I usually do the day before starts and during the week. Just kind of a freak thing, just happened to come down on it. It sucks, but it's part of it and hopefully I can get better pretty quickly."
Durability has been Aaron Nola’s calling card in his career. He discussed his frustration with landing on the IL.
(Via @TimKellySports) pic.twitter.com/m2dBPmw11H
Daniel Robert — who was the 27th man in Wednesday's doubleheader — will be back in the bullpen Friday evening. The Phillies will have to make another roster move before Sunday's game, be it optioning Robert or something else, to make room for Mick Abel. The former first-round pick will make his MLB Debut Sunday against Paul Skenes and the Pirates, before he heads back to Lehigh Valley. Taijuan Walker will then rejoin the rotation Wednesday in Colorado and remain in it until Nola returns.
The Phillies initially thought that Nola could pitch through the injury, but beyond the poor results he's gotten in his last two starts, they were worried that he would overcompensate without being able to push off the mound with the same force and suffer another injury.
Did Nola feel like he had overcompensated in any way over the two starts he's made since turning his ankle?
"Yeah, a little bit," Nola admitted. "I feel like I did have to overcompensate. Like I said, it did get a little better the last game. But back wise, I put a little more stress on my back the first game, just because I wasn't able to rotate my foot like I usually do. I kinda need to do that."
The Phillies came to Nola about going on the IL, which will raise some eyebrows considering he has a 6.16 ERA through his first nine starts of the season. It's possible that his ankle is hurt and also there are other areas that he needs to address during his time off to get back to pitching like the frontline starter that the Phillies gave a seven-year/$172 million deal before the 2024 season.
For what it's worth, Nola shared the optimism that Rob Thomson had pregame about this likely not being a long-term absence.
"Obviously, I never want to go on the IL," Nola said. "As a competitor, what I'm here to do is go pitch. I've pitched through stuff ... little things that haven't affected me ... affected stuff around my delivery.
"So, like I said, I thought this was going to subside by now," Nola said. "But it hasn't really. It's gotten a little better, so I guess not pitching for a short period of time, hopefully it will be out pretty quickly."
