Phillies’ Aaron Nola Knows This Will Help Him in 2026

Aaron Nola is coming off one of his roughest seasons in recent memory. The Philadelphia Phillies' starting pitcher had a career-worst 6.01 ERA anda 1.35 WHIP last season.

Nola isn’t shying away from the fact that he wanted to be better a year ago. “Obviously, last year wasn't a great year. Had some good games sprinkled in there, but take the bad ones and learn from them.

Nola also had a near-career-low in another area, starts, which could explain some of his struggles and inconsistencies. 

As Nola gets ready for the 2026 season, he knows that his health will be paramount to having a successful season. He’s pitched 30+ starts (excluding 2020) since the 2018 season, but that was essentially cut in half in 2025 due to a trip to the 60-day injured list for an ankle sprain and a rib injury he was working through.

Before those injuries, Nola said, “I felt great. I felt earlier than my younger 30s.”

It does make sense that a pitcher who was so used to carrying a heavy workload and taking the mound once every five days had trouble finding consistency on the mound

Now, Nola is hoping to move past that brutal season, and that started on Friday with his first start in spring training. The right-hander threw 31 pitches over 2.0 innings of work and allowed only two hits and one earned run, including a pair of strikeouts and no walks in that span. 

It’s extremely early, but Nola’s outing against the Miami Marlins was much more indicative of the pitcher the Phillies have been used to seeing over the last decade. 

The good news for the Phillies is that Nola insists he feels great and healthy heading into the season.

“I feel really good. My body feels good, and I feel like I'm ramping up nicely, and I’m conditioning pretty well. So, ready to [go]. I hope I'm healthy all year, and to throw 32-33 starts again, usually do.”

If Nola can avoid injuries, stay on the mound, and settle into a routine of throwing every five days, there’s no reason he can’t have a bounce-back season with the Phillies.

He already showed flashes of that in his first spring training outing, which should give Philadelphia some confidence that they could get back the All-Star caliber pitcher in 2026. 

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