Philadelphia Phillies Ace Headlines Upcoming Free Agent Class

One site believes that the Philadelphia Phillies and other teams will want to pursue starting pitcher Aaron Nola this offseason.

The Philadelphia Phillies will have plenty of work to do this offseason in free agency. One of those jobs will be to try and hold on to their Top 10 free agent.

CBS Sports put together a list of the Top 10 free agents going into this offseason. Naturally, the top selection was Los Angeles Angels two-way superstar Shohei Ohtani.

But Phillies starting pitcher Aaron Nola made the list at No. 8.

The right-handed pitcher was the Phillies’ first-round pick in 2014 and he made his MLB debut one season later. He’s been with the Phillies ever since, as he’s racked up 87 wins in nine seasons, including a 9-8 record with a 4.58 ERA this season.

He’s also been an All-Star and finished in the Top 7 in Cy Young voting three times.

Nola is playing out the final year of a four-year, $45 million deal he signed with the Phillies before the 2020 season to get him through his arbitration years. So Nola has never tested the market.

According to CBS, he’ll have to overcome some recent issues to get a big contract:

His strikeout rate is down, his walk rate is up, and he's allowing harder contact on average than at nearly any other point in his career. We still think some team will look at Nola's track record and roll the dice -- especially if they can convince themselves that his bloated home-run rate is certain to regress.

To that point, Nola has given up 26 home runs this season, a career high. He’s also striking out 9.2 hitters per nine innings. If that keeps up, it will be the first time since 2018 that he hasn’t registered at least 10 strikeouts per nine innings. The walk rate is also up nearly a walk per nine innings from last season.

Still, there’s a track record for Nola that will interest the Phillies — and other teams — once the season ends.

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