Phillies ace is torturing Braves fans for offseason miss one start at time

Right when the offseason began it was abundantly clear that the Atlanta Braves had one primary free-agent target. Aaron Nola. The Braves wanted to steal Nola away from their rivals, the Philadelphia Phillies, and have him form a three-headed monster alongside Spencer Strider and Max Fried.

While it's unusual to see the Braves show interest in a high-priced free agent, the fit with Nola in particular made a lot of sense. He was very familiar with the NL East, he'd help them get over the hump against the Phillies who had defeated them two years in a row in October, and he'd give them much-needed Max Fried insurance.

Unfortunately for Atlanta, Nola chose to re-sign with the Phillies. They're already seeing that major offseason miss come back to haunt them.

Aaron Nola's brilliance is torturing Braves fans after offseason miss

Nola's season got off to a rough start when he allowed seven runs (six earned) in his first start of the year against these Braves, but ever since, he has been absolutely dominant.

The right-hander has posted a 2.06 ERA in his five starts since that rocky first one and the Phillies have gone 5-0 in those outings. Not only has Nola kept the opposition off the board, but he has gone incredibly deep in his starts showing his value in an immense way.

The 30-year-old has completed eight innings in each of his last two starts after his dominant outing on Friday which happens to be more than any other team has all season. This doesn't even include his recent start against the Rockies in which he started but did not finish the eighth inning.

With Strider out for the season, Atlanta could have really used Nola, especially when he's pitching like this. While they have gotten strong work out of Chris Sale, his lack of durability makes him far riskier than Nola who has made at least 32 starts and thrown at least 180 innings in each of the last five full seasons (excluding 2020).

Atlanta is going to be fine in the regular season even without Strider, but the question will be what happens in October. With Nola thriving in Philadelphia, Atlanta might end up falling short again because they failed to steal him away.