Diagnosed with a flexor and UCL sprain, the Philadelphia Phillies lose starter Aaron Nola for the rest of the season.
The Philadelphia Phillies are sitting right outside the race for the National League Wild Card, but received bad news on Wednesday.
The Phillies have learned that they will lose starting pitcher Aaron Nola for the rest of the season with a “low grade” UCL sprain and flexor strain. Matt Gelb of the Philadelphia Inquirer was among those to break the news on Twitter. Surgery was an option for this injury but it does not look like it will happen. Nola received a platelet-rich plasma injection after the diagnosis and is expected to be ready for Spring Training.
Aaron Nola’s season is over. Saw James Andrews, who diagnosed mild UCL sprain and mild flexor strain. Received PRP injection.
— Matt Gelb (@MattGelb) August 17, 2016
Nola, 23, was the 7th overall pick in the 1st round of the 2014 draft out of LSU. He had a great start to the season, but the tides turned as June rolled around. To start the month of June, Nola had an ERA slightly below 3.00, but it was all downhill from there.
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From June 11th through July 28th, he posted an ERA of 9.82. This forced the team to give him a two week break from pitching before the All-Star break. Nola finished the season with a disappointing 4.78 ERA in 111 innings. It was a tale of two seasons for Nola. It is yet to be known if this injury was something that lingered throughout the season. If it was, that would be what explains the epic collapse of Nola.
On the other hand, Nola’s peripherals still look promising. Nola posted a 9.8 K/9 against 2.4 BB/9 to go along with a nice 55.2 percent ground ball rate. Those numbers show a promising future for the right hander. The Phillies will hope that Nola can come back strong and be the ace of the rotation next season. Before this injury, Nola had proven to the team that he could stay healthy and pitch pretty consistently towards the top of the rotation.
The Phillies still have a young, promising pitching rotation for the future. Jared Eickhoff, 26, has showed to be the most consistent pitcher in the rotation all season. Vince Velasquez, 24, has the best stuff but still has to figure out how to pitch. Zach Eflin and Jake Thompson, both 22, have a small sample size in the big leagues but put up nice numbers in Triple-A. And Jeremy Hellickson, 29, has pitched very well this season but is set to become a free agent after the season. The team is expected to extend a qualifying offer to Hellickson though.
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The Phillies won’t take a step back in their rebuild after this injury. On the bright side, they were probably going to shut down Nola anyways due to innings limits. This is just a roadbump in the rebuild for the Phillies, but the team will be ready to contend in 2-3 years.