PHILADELPHIA - Aaron Nola has earned patience in Philadelphia.
That is the first thing that has to be said because it still matters. He is not some disposable arm passing through town. He is a homegrown first-round pick, a pitcher who has taken the ball in October, carried heavy innings, answered questions after ugly nights, and spent more than a decade becoming one of the most important starters in franchise history.
But patience is not the same thing as denial.
And after Monday night, the Phillies are running out of room for denial.
They gave Nola a 5-0 lead against the Pirates. It should have been enough. It should have been the kind of night when the offense made life easier, when Citizens Bank Park settled in, and when Nola turned early cushion into six clean innings and a handshake. Instead, it became another entry in a growing file of concerns.
Nola allowed eight runs, seven earned, on eight hits over 4 1/3 innings in an 11-7 loss. He gave up two more home runs, making it four straight starts in which he has allowed multiple homers. His ERA now sits at 6.04 through 17 starts.
That is the problem. This no longer feels like one bad night. It feels like a two-year argument the Phillies have not been able to win.
Last season, there was an explanation. Nola was hurt. He dealt with an ankle injury, then a stress reaction in his right rib, and finished a lost year with a 6.01 ERA over 17 starts. The Phillies could explain that away because his track record gave them cover. Before that, he had given them a representative 2024: 33 starts, nearly 200 innings, a 3.57 ERA, and enough durability to make the first year of his seven-year, $172 million contract look stable, even if the home run issue was already flashing.
Now, the explanations are thinner.
The stuff can still show up. That may be what makes this so maddening. There are innings when Nola still looks like Nola, when the curveball has shape, the changeup gets empty swings, and the command appears close enough to believe a correction is coming. Don Mattingly said after Monday’s loss that early in the game, he thought Nola was going to roll. Nola, though, offered the simpler truth: “I gave up too many hits, too many runs. I have to be better than that.”
He is right.
The Phillies are not asking Nola to be Zack Wheeler. They are not asking him to be Cristopher Sánchez. At this stage, they do not even need him to be the version that once gave them 200 strikeouts and 190 innings like clockwork. But they do need him to be dependable. They need him to protect five-run leads. They need him to avoid the crooked inning. They need him to keep the ball in the yard long enough for this offense and this bullpen to matter.
That is where the contract becomes relevant. Not because money should decide roles, but because money shapes reality. Nola is signed through 2030. The Phillies are not cutting bait. They are not trading the problem away. They are not pretending $172 million can be erased because the fifth inning keeps turning sideways.
So what can they do?
They can stop treating reputation as production. They can give Nola extra rest when the schedule allows it. They can be quicker with the hook when the lineup turns over and the command starts to leak. They can keep working the slider into the mix if it gives hitters one more shape to consider. They can also be honest at the trade deadline: this team needs another starter, not because Nola is finished, but because October cannot be built on sentiment.
The Phillies can still win with Aaron Nola. But the role has changed. He is no longer the rotation’s safe bet. He is its biggest variable.
And that is the uncomfortable part. The Phillies do not need to give up on him. They do, however, need to stop waiting for the old Nola to simply walk back through the door.
If that pitcher is still in there, he has to prove it now.
Five innings at a time.
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