Lauber: Phillies Have Their Best Pitcher On A Team Friendly Deal
On Wednesday, the Phillies and Aaron Nola agreed to a Four year contract extension worth 45 Million Guaranteed as both sides avoided going to arbitration. The 2018 season marked the first season that Nola put it all together as he was selected to the All-Star team and finished third in the voting for NL Cy Young Award. Last season Nola was tied for first in the National League in Wins Above Replacement (10.0 - tied with Jacob deGrom) along with second in ERA (2.37) and fourth in fewest Hits Per Nine Innings Allowed (6.316).
Philly.com Phillies Beat Reporter Scott Lauber joined Mike Gill on Wednesday and gave his perspective on Aaron Nola's new deal:
"(Nola's new deal) does a couple of things: it gets Aaron Nola a little bit of financial security at a time when the climate for free agents is not so hot. I think if you’re Aaron Nola and you look around, last year you saw your teammate Jake Arrieta not sign until mid-March (and) this year you see a pretty good lefty out on the market in Dallas Keuchel who’s still not signed and it’s spring training and pitchers and catchers are reporting to camp. - I do think the more players look around, the more they see what the climate is and they realize that if they can get some security now, it pushes free agency maybe down the road a year or two....It’s not gonna break the bank to have Aaron Nola for the next four years at a minimum. Four more years that should be prime years for him and you can take a shot at a couple of World Series and hope that you have him around for that and kind of fill in the rest of your team from there. So it’s a deal that makes some sense for both sides, but certainly I think for the Phillies, if you’re looking around and you’re figuring out how to structure your team, you got to be thrilled to have your best pitcher on a relatively team friendly deal now for the next four years.”
Hear what Lauber had to say about Jake Arrieta's recovery from offseason surgery, Maikel Franco versus Scott Kingery competition to start at Third Base, and more