Could The Phillies Longest-Tenured Player Be On The Move?

Phillies pitcher Aaron Nola allowed 3 home runs in six innings. In turn, causing the Phillies to fall to the Miami Marlins 7-3 in their final game before the 2023 All-Star break. Allowing Miami to still have a significant lead over them in the National League Wildcard standings.

The Phillies were looking to win 2 of 3 in the last series before the all-star break, from the National League East rival Miami Marlins. In a much-needed series win to try and gain a stronger hold on the 3^rd wildcard spot and avoid giving it up to the Gabe Kapler-managed San Francisco Giants. The Phillies turned to 30-year-old Aaron Nola to help the team go into the All-Star break on a high note.

Instead, quite the opposite happened.

Nola gave up an early home run to Miami’s Right Fielder Jesús Sánchez, to deep center field in the 1^st inning. And it just went downhill from there.

Nola continued to struggle in the outing giving up two more home runs and lasting 6 innings.

Therefore, causing the Phillies to fall to the Marlins 7-3.

With the team ending up losing 2 of 3 in the series, they gave up the last wildcard spot to the San Francisco Giants. Along with giving the Marlins a more comfortable hold on the first N.L. wildcard spot.

Nola’s contract extension talks were put on hold before the start of the season.

Some rumors began to arise, saying that the Phillies offered the 30-year-old, north of 100 million dollars. As a result, this led Aaron to take the risky route and rely on his own performance to seek out a better financial situation for himself. Whether that will come from the Phillies or another organization, only the future will tell.

Nola’s best year with the team was in 2018. Where he posted a sub-three ERA (2.37 to be exact), with a 17-6 record and pitching north of 200 innings.

These great numbers led the team to instill faith in the young right-hander. Signing him to a 4-year/$45-million-dollar deal in 2019.

Now, in the final year of his contract with the team, Aaron has been nothing shy of subpar thus far. His ERA this season was nearly a run higher than his career average of 3.67.

The veteran right-hander needs to turn his season around after the All-Star break if he wants to have the opportunity to pitch for the Phillies for years to come. The chances of this are looking slimmer and slimmer. With pitchers like Mick Abel (21) and Andy Painter (20), on the cusp of their major league break. Aaron has to make his numbers as close as he possibly can to that magical ‘18 season for him to possibly see another season in red pinstripes.

[SOURCES: mlb.com, baseball-reference.com, baseball-reference.com/players/n/nolaaa01, mlb.com/standings/wild-card]

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When Buster Olney says anything Baseball related, it is worth listening to what he says. And luckily for Phillies fans, he has a lot of good things to say about the Phillies right now. He went on ESPN the other day with Philly's own Kevin Negandhi and sung their praises. Olney believes the Phillies are the team with the best chances to compete with the Braves. Especially considering we have not even seen Bryce Harper, Trea Turner, or Kyle Schwabrer play their best ball yet.

But he also alluded that they could be dangerous players at the deadline. And to get some insight into what he meant by that, The Anthony Gargano Show had him on today. Jamie Lynch and Andrew Salciunas filled in for Anthony and asked Buster Olney to expand on his thoughts about why he is so high on the Phillies, and also what he thought they would do at the deadline.

So will the Phillies be in on big names like Juan Soto, Nolan Arenado, Paul Goldschmidt, or Shohei Ohtani? Is that just wishful thinking? Is there a more realistic option he can see them making? Buster Olney got into that and more.

Before they asked Buster Olney about the big names, they had to touch on a realistic option first. And the first name that came to mind for him, was Cody Bellinger.

Olney mentioned Ohtani, so they had to ask. Will the Phillies be in on Ohtani? Dan Plesac reported that they may be in the mix on MLB Network, so they wanted to see what Buster thought.

The other hot names are Nolan Arenado and Paul Goldschmidt. The Cardinals are bad for the first time in a long time. Leading to a ton of rumors that one of their superstars could be moved. But is there any smoke to that fire? Buster Olney poured a little bit of cold water on Phillies fans' dreams on landing one of those big bats.

The last name they asked about was Juan Soto. He took a flight back to Philadelphia for this weekend's Phillies-Padres series with the Phillies' other All-Stars. His name has also been floated for the Phillies. Buster Olney did question whether he is actually on the market though.

They also talked to him about how the Phillies match up with the Braves, the future of Aaron Nola, and more. You can listen to everything Buster Olney had to say below: