Aaron Nola: Bullpen ace?

Could we see Nola pitching in relief come playoff time?

If you asked people to name weaknesses of the 2025 Phillies, most of them would probably lead with the bullpen. It’s hard to argue otherwise: Jose Alvarado is suspended, Jordan Romano, Matt Strahm, and Orion Kerkering have had their share of shaky moments, and the rotating cast at the back of the roster have not filled fans with much confidence.

I have been less convinced that this is a fatal flaw, because:

• It seems inevitable that the Phillies will make a deadline trade for at least one more reliever
• It is likely that among the group of Cristopher Sanchez, Ranger Suarez, Jesus Luzardo, and Mick Abel, at least two of them will be serving in relief roles come playoff time.

There’s another name I didn’t mention there (I did mention him in the title of the article, so you can probably figure out where I’m going here): Aaron Nola.

Nola has been on the Injured List for quite some time now with an ankle sprain that somehow morphed into a stress fracture in his ribs.

The expectation is that he’ll be back before the end of the season, and due mostly to his experience and stature in the clubhouse, it is assumed he’ll be a part of the postseason rotation. But of all the starters the Phillies have on the roster, it might make the most sense to move Nola to the bullpen for the playoffs.

Nola was not having a good season before he went on the IL. Perhaps that was due to his ankle, perhaps he’s just incapable of pitching well in odd numbered years, but for whatever reason, he was pitching poorly. Based on merit, it would be difficult to say he has more of a claim on a rotation spot than Sanchez, Luzardo, or Suarez.

His pitching profile also might translate well to a relief role. Nola generally has good control and strikes out a lot of batters, which are desirable traits for high leverage relievers. While he is notoriously prone to allowing surrendering home runs (which is not a good trait for high leverage relievers), at least a lot of them tend to be solo shots.

Nola is also prone to cruising through the first few innings, and then inexplicably allow multiple runs in the fourth or fifth. If he’s only pitching one or two innings, this would obviously not be an issue.

Of course, it’s not as simple as just telling him he’s a reliever now. While we’ve seen starting pitchers successfully turn into playoff relievers before, it’s not always a smooth transition. Nola assuredly has a well-tested warmup routine before starts. He might find it difficult to adjust to the uncertainty that a relief role brings.

It also might be difficult to get Nola to buy in, as it might come off as a demotion, (Which, I suppose, it sort of is) but the injury might provide them cover. His return date is still uncertain, so he might not even be stretched out to a starter’s workload by the end of the season. Perhaps the team could convince him it’s also in his best interests to work in relief.

If Nola really doesn’t like it, they can always call up Brett Myers to convince him that he’d be like a “rock star” in a late inning relief role.

Obviously, it’s early to be discussing these matters. There’s almost an entire half season left, and injuries or waning effectiveness could make this a moot point by the time the playoffs roll around. But as it stands right now, it wouldn’t shock me if come the postseason, if the Phillies are protecting a small lead late in the game, we’re watching Aaron Nola attempting to close it out.