Phillies on verge of big mistake with Aaron Nola extension

The Philadelphia Phillies aren’t making much of an effort to extend Aaron Nola, their homegrown ace who hits the free agent market in 2024.

Philadelphia’s rotation is fairly top-heavy at the moment, with Nola and Zack Wheeler leading the way. This is no disrespect to Ranger Suarez and Taijuan Walker, but Nola has finished top-7 in NL Cy Young voting in three seasons, and made an NL All-Star team.

Nola is the Phillies co-ace, along with Wheeler. Yet, he’s scheduled to be a free agent in the 2024 offseason, as he has yet to reach an agreement on a contract extension with the franchise.

“Nothing’s really come up,” Nola said. “They picked up the option, so I’m just going to focus on this year. I think the biggest thing I’m excited about is that we have almost everybody back, with a few great additions. We had so much fun last year and we pretty much have the same group this year, which is awesome. That’s rare.”

Aaron Nola has right mindset with Phillies

Signing Nola would be an expensive ask for a Phillies team already near the luxury tax. Nonetheless, that’s what it takes to win in this league, and Philadelphia is coming off a World Series appearance.

“If things come up, it would be great to stay,” Nola said. “But we haven’t really talked about anything. Nothing’s come up.”

Nola was a Phillies draft pick, and he came up through the organization. He’ll be 30 in June, but is still younger and more successful than the likes of Carlos Rodon, who received a six-year, $162 million deal this winter. It’s widely expected Nola will far exceed that contract.

“It’s something we’d like to do,” GM Dave Dombrowski said. “We want Aaron to be in the organization for a long time, no question about it. We love his abilities. I know he likes it in Philadelphia. So, that’s something that will be in our mind.”

Wanting to get an extension done and actually discussing it with Nola’s agent are two very different things. Dombrowski needs to stop wasting time.