Philadelphia Phillies Pitcher Rightfully Seen as Biggest Disappointment This Season

Who has been the biggest disappointment for the Philadelphia Phillies this year?

May 26, 2023; Atlanta, Georgia, USA; A detailed view of a Philadelphia Phillies hat and glove on the bench against the Atlanta Braves in the seventh inning at Truist Park. | Brett Davis-Imagn Images

The Philadelphia Phillies were officially the first team in baseball to clinch their division, and now the team is going to be playing meaningful baseball in October. It has been another strong season for the Phillies despite having to deal with numerous obstacles. This is a team that is hoping to finally get over the hump and win a World Series with their current core of talent. 

For the last several years, Philadelphia has been one of the top teams in the National League, but they have been eliminated earlier from the playoffs in each of the last two campaigns after making the World Series in 2022. 

With a couple of key players set to hit free agency after this season, the 2025 campaign has always felt like it could be the last run for the current core. While the unit might end up staying together for a bit longer, changes to the roster are inevitably going to have to happen. 

Fortunately, one area of the team that has been strong for most of the year has been their starting rotation. This was a unit coming into the season that had the potential to be one of the best in the league, and they have lived up to that for the most part. Sadly, the unit took a major hit when Zack Wheeler was ruled out for the rest of the year. 

With the ace of the staff out, the team was hoping that one of their other veterans would step up to fill a role that, over the course of his career, he has been capable of being a frontline pitcher. Unfortunately, that hasn’t happened. Bradford Doolittle of ESPN recently wrote about the biggest failure for the Phillies this season being starting pitcher Aaron Nola. 

Nola Has Rightfully Been the Biggest Disappointment

Kyle Ross-Imagn Images

When the season started, Philadelphia likely felt extremely comfortable with the dynamic one-two punch at the top of the rotation that has helped them win so many games over the last several years. Unfortunately, Nola has had a terrible campaign, and his role in October is going to be an interesting one. 

The right-hander got off to a slow start and then went to the injured list for an extended period of time. Since returning, the production has still been poor, with the veteran having an ERA over 6.00. The Phillies are paying Nola a lot of money to be a frontline pitcher for the rotation, but he hasn't been able to do that. Barring a drastic change before the playoff starts, it doesn’t appear like the team will be able to trust him to start a playoff game.