2022 is a make-or-break year for several Philadelphia Phillies pitchers
The stakes are always high in Major League Baseball, but for the Philadelphia Phillies, who haven’t reached the postseason in a decade, the pressure is increasing.
In particular, the Phillies have several pitchers with something to prove in 2022. For various reasons – contract year, injuries, poor performance – this will be a make-or-break year for them.
Here are three pitchers who need to do well in 2022, and why….
2022 is a make-or-break year for Aaron Nola
Aaron Nola is coming off a rough season, heading into a contract year. Over 32 starts, he posted a 4.63 ERA, and only accumulated 180 2/3 total innings, his first season under 200 innings since 2017.
Nola is supposed to be a marquee player on this team, and instead, he was one of their biggest problems. His inability to go deep into games (he only made five starts of 7+ innings) further exhausted an already depleted bullpen, which was often called for by the fifth inning of his starts.
To make a bad situation worse, Nola continued to fall apart in September. Over his six starts in the final month of the regular season, his ERA rose to 6.19, and he allowed 22 earned runs in 32 innings, never making a scoreless start. In fact, he only made four scoreless starts all year, the last being on August 10.
The Phillies signed Nola to a four-year deal through 2022, and do have a club option for 2023, but if he can’t go deep into games and lower his ERA, they’ll either trade him or let him enter free agency next fall.
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