Phillies: 8 milestones to watch for this season

Aaron Nola: 1,000 strikeouts

It’s hard to believe that Aaron Nola is already entering his sixth big league season. It feels like yesterday the Phillies drafted him out of LSU and saw him make a meteoric rise through the system, only to pitch in the big leagues less than a year after being drafted.

Going into year six Nola is just 174 strikeouts away from hitting a record 1,000 punch outs.

Nola would be just the ninth player in Phillies history to have at least 1,000 career strikeouts with the team. Only Brett Myers and Randy Wolf stand in his way when it comes to entering the franchise’s top-10 all-time strikeout leaders.

Of course, Nola has a long way to go before putting his name up there with Steve Carlton, Robin Roberts, or Cole Hamels for the all-time franchise leaders.

Over his last three seasons Nola has averaged 212 strikeouts a season, which would easily push him over the 1,000 mark in his young career.

The way pitchers are used nowadays Nola will likely never come close to Carlton’s 3,031 strikeouts, the fourth-most in baseball history. Only 83 players in the history of baseball (.0042%) have reached 2,000 strikeouts, and Carlton is the only Phillie in that exclusive club.

Provided he’s healthy and the Phillies allow him to go deep into game, it’s very conceivable to think Nola gets his 1,000th strikeout in 2020 and positions himself to rise among the franchise’s all-time list.