Why Aaron Nola Looks So Much More Ready To Go for Phillies in 2026

Italian-American hero Aaron Nola became baseball's main character on Wednesday night, pitching both Team Italy and Team USA into the next round of the World Baseball Classic by shutting Mexico out for five innings.

It was the most impressive and clutch starting pitching performance of WBC pool play, but what should encourage Phillies fans even more is that Nola looks as healthy and fresh as ever to begin a season.

Nola hit 94.5 mph with his sinker against Mexico, a velocity he reached only three times in the 2025 regular season: once apiece on Aug. 28, Sept. 8 and Sept. 20. He threw four more pitches at least that speed in the 2025 playoffs, but the point here and now is that he's entering a season with more velocity than usual.

Italian-American hero Aaron Nola hit 94.5 mph tonight. He reached that velocity only 3 times last season.

Hit 94 with 8 of his fastballs if you believe in rounding up. pic.twitter.com/lnmbMDp0Bh
— Corey Seidman (@CoreySeidman) March 12, 2026

Nola has always been a notoriously slow starter when it comes to velo. For his career, his fastball has averaged 91.4 mph prior to May 1 and 92.3 after May 1.

Last year, for example, Nola threw 43 fastballs in his first regular-season start. Only 12 were 92.0 mph or above, and 12 were also 88 to 90.

On Wednesday, Nola hit 93.0 mph 15 times and exceeded 92.0 mph with 24 of his 32 fastballs. He also generated swinging strikes on seven of the 14 curveballs he threw.

He is not typically in this good a place at this time of year.

Hitting the ground running

"I felt crisp," the 12th-year Phillie said after his first start of spring training. "I just feel a little bit more prepared. I was able to throw all of my pitches a little bit quicker and earlier just because I started earlier and got more bullpen (sessions) under my belt before the first game.

"More long-tossing. Usually I take a lot more time off and use spring training to ramp up. It's kind've nice to be a little bit more ready going into the first game."

The reason Nola was able to work harder during the offseason is because for the first time in nearly a decade, he wasn't coming off a heavy workload. He didn't miss a single start to injury from 2018 until hurting his ankle and rib midway through 2025.

Bounce-back season?

Nola maxed out at 93.9 in his second start of the spring and followed it up with even more cheddar against Team Mexico. Some of it may have been adrenaline, and the conditions in Clearwater or in domed Daikin Park in Houston are more conducive to velocity than the potential 45-degree conditions Nola may be pitching in his first few starts in Philly. So don't be too surprised if his 93-94 isn't as consistent on March 28-30 as it was in these two starts.

Still, it's exactly what Phillies fans would want to see after the worst year of Nola's career. He couldn't find a rhythm in 2025 before or after injury, finishing with a 6.01 ERA in 17 starts.

At prior points in his career, Nola had struggled with home runs but survived them because he allowed so few baserunners. The best example was 2023, when he allowed a home run in 11 consecutive starts but did so with a 0.99 WHIP and .206 opponents' batting average. Home runs hurt, but not as much when they're solos.

Last year, though, Nola was hittable in all forms. Lefties in particular crushed him with 14 home runs and 27 extra-base hits in 250 plate appearances. He wasn't effective, then he wasn't healthy. It was an ominous second season of a seven-year, $172 million contract.

But he enters 2026 with a clean slate. The Phillies' rotation is more built out than it was at most points during Nola's first 11 seasons with the team. He could very well be the fourth starter in a playoff rotation after Zack Wheeler, Cristopher Sanchez and Jesus Luzardo. That is obviously a conversation for much farther down the road, but it speaks to the depth Dave Dombrowski's front office has put together and retained.

No longer needs to be the 1A

Nola had a career year in 2018 when he went 17-6 with a 2.37 ERA and 0.98 WHIP in 33 starts. Those were Roy Halladay-like numbers. He hasn't come close to that level since but did excel in 2022 with a 3.25 ERA and 0.96 WHIP in 205 innings.

The Phillies do not need Nola to be the Cy Young version of 2018 or even the No. 1A starter of 2022. If he just does what he did in 2024 — 3.57 ERA in 199⅓ innings, 20 quality starts — it would be incredibly valuable to a team that expects to build many early leads and protect them with a strong bullpen.

What's next?

Now, Nola gets another round of the WBC. Italy advances from Pool B to the quarterfinals to face Puerto Rico, the runner-up of Pool A. Team USA also advances from Pool B to face Canada, the winner of Pool A.

Nola will not be able to pitch in the quarterfinals because the game will be March 14 when he's on just two days' rest. His next chance to pitch would be either March 16 if Italy advances to the semifinals and plays that day, or March 17 in the championship game.

If Italy loses before then, Nola could start twice more for the Phillies in spring training before facing either the Rangers or Nationals at home the first week of the regular season.