The Phillies announced that they have placed right-hander Aaron Nola on the 15-day injured list, retroactive to May 15th, due to a sprained right ankle. Right-hander Daniel Robert has been recalled to take his roster spot. Todd Zolecki of MLB.com was among those to report that prospect Mick Abel will be promoted to make his major league debut but only to make a spot start on Sunday. After that, he will be optioned to Triple-A and Taijuan Walker will take Nola’s rotation spot. In other Philly news, manager Rob Thomson relayed that prospect Moisés Chace will undergo Tommy John surgery. Lochlahn March of the Philadelphia Inquirer was among those to pass that along.
Per March, Nola injured his ankle prior to his recent start in Cleveland. He went on to allow four earned runs in five innings in that game. His next start was even worse, as Nola allowed nine earned runs over 3 2/3 innings against the Cardinals on Wednesday.
Perhaps the ankle injury provides an explanation for those outings but Nola was also struggling before that, with a 4.61 earned run average over his first seven starts this year. Though for what it’s worth, he was building a bit of momentum. On April 27th, he pitched seven innings of one-run ball against the Cubs, then six scoreless against the Diamondbacks on May 3rd.
Whether it’s due to the ankle or not, Nola now has a 6.16 ERA on the year. His 23.6% strikeout rate, 7.3% walk rate and 44.6% ground ball rate are all decent numbers, but 11 home runs have pushed more runs across the plate. SIERA, which expects home run rate to normalize, has Nola at 3.66 this year. However, home runs have always been a part of Nola’s game, so that might not be the best metric in this specific instance. The Phillies haven’t provided an estimate for how long they expect Nola to be out but it seems he will miss at least a few turns.
Nola’s injury will allow Walker to return to the rotation. He started his season with six great starts, posting a 2.54 ERA in those. But when Ranger Suárez was ready to come off the IL, someone had to go. Walker got bumped to the bullpen as the Phils ran with a rotation of Suárez, Nola, Zack Wheeler, Jesús Luzardo and Cristopher Sánchez. Walker made two relief appearances, each three innings long. The first was scoreless but he allowed three earned runs in the second one, which came in relief of Nola on Wednesday.
He’ll retake a rotation spot next week, but Abel will get to make his major league debut in the interim. A former first-round pick, Abel’s prospect stock has dropped a bit due to some inconsistent control. From 2021 to 2024, he tossed 375 minor league innings and struck out 26.9% of batters faced but he also gave out walks at a 13.3% clip, leading to a 4.75 ERA.
Despite the rough edges, the Phils added him to their 40-man roster in November, to keep him out of the Rule 5 draft. The early results are encouraging this year. He has a 2.53 ERA through eight Triple-A starts, with a 26.6% strikeout rate and 49.2% ground ball rate. His 9.9% walk rate is still a bit higher than par but an improvement for him. He’ll get a chance to make a brief debut this weekend.
As for Chace, it’s obviously an unfortunate blow for him. Acquired from the Orioles in last summer’s Gregory Soto trade, Chace is one of the club’s top pitching prospects and a fringe top 100 guy. He wasn’t on every list but FanGraphs had him at #74 coming into the year, ESPN at #90 and Baseball Prospectus put him in their #101 slot.
Like Abel, Chace was given a 40-man spot in November to keep him out of the Rule 5 draft. He started this year at Double-A and could have worked his way to Triple-A or even the majors during the 2025 season. That will now be on pause for a long time, as he should be rehabbing until the summer of 2026. The Phils could recall him and place him on the major league 60-day injured list at some point if they so choose. Doing so would open a 40-man spot but would also require Chace to start earning big league pay and service time.
Photo courtesy of Bill Streicher, Imagn Images
I think this is bad news, but hopefully since it’s just a sprain he should be back soon.
While I agree with your sentiment, it might even be good news if a temporary health impediment partially explains Nola’s recent bad pitching.
Or it’s a fake injury and they’re just trying to get him right.
That is the other possibility, give him a couple weeks to watch tape, adjust his mechanics or fix whatever is wrong. I don’t know, no inside info here.
MLB – Sounds very similar to what the Sox are doing with Houck.
I don’t doubt that if he’d pitched well through it he wouldn’t be going on the IL but I do think it’s certainly possible his lack of ability to push off or plant properly could affect him and if he’s not pitching well might as well get him healthy and yes I think a good time to work on what he may be doing wrong. He looked really really bad and I don’t think Nola had all of a sudden gotten that bad. With a guy like him it’s usually a bad habit he’s gotten into that in time he can fix .
I drafted both Houck and Nola in fantasy. ooooof
For the Phillies sake I hope his ankle had something to do with his struggles. I follow the Cardinals and thought for sure they’d lost both games of that double header but they teed off he didn’t look good. All pitchers have bad games where they didn’t have their best stuff but sounds like it was more than just that start.
This is one of those phantom type injuries, surprised they didn’t say neck. Opportunity here for Nola to reset. An opportunity for Mick Abel as well, a showcase to every team in baseball. He’s their most logical trade chip, considering the Phillies SP depth. Plus they have said publicly that Painter, Crawford & Miller will be part of the long term plans. Hope they find a creative way to include Taijuan Walker in a trade, maybe to offset some salary of the incoming player(s). That way there’s no question Nola rejoins the rotation in a few weeks when he’s ready to go, mentally & physically.
AC – Well said!
BTW – Have you ever been to AC? I’ve spent much time there, mostly at Delilah’s but also on the boardwalk, it was a long time ago.
Was born in Atlantic City and grew up in bordering shore town, Ventnor. Growing up in Atlantic City got me in some trouble, but at least I learned my lesson on gambling at a young age.
I went to a couple of Surfs games. It was a fun night out
Where’s Marvin Gardens?
Well, the trades with Orioles last deadline certainly hasn’t worked in the Phillies favor. Looking forward to seeing ABEL as he has made some adjustments and performed well for Lehigh. It’s good to give the kid a chance to showcase what he can do.
Those trades haven’t worked in either team’s favor.
Eh, Soto needed a change of scenery, and Chace, for his part, is still quite young.
Yes – for a guy with an attitude that wasn’t pitching well in Soto and never got his head straight here, the Phils got Seth Johnson (has a shot at being a good bullpen arm), and Chace who could still be a back of the rotation guy. From my side, getting two quality lottery tickets with upside is a more than fair return, no matter what happens down the road.
If he pitches well, the Phillies should leave him in the rotation. I know they won’t, Walker will be “showcased”, for hopefully his eventual trade.
Let’s be real…it’s a ghost injury unless he oddly sprained his ankle after his last start.
If it’s a real injury shame on the Phillies for allowing him to pitch through it and allow 9 earned runs in his last outing.
Has Nola ever been on the IL? Dude is a horse, he has been extremely durable from my understanding. I could be wrong though, so if any Phillies fan can confirm!
Back strain in 2017 and elbow strain in 2016 per Baseball Prospectus.
Thank you!
That’s pretty good! Very durable!
Nola has eight straight seasons of pitching enough innings to qualify for the ERA title. Next best among current pitchers are Corbin Burnes and Dylan Cease with four seasons each. Durability is in short supply these days.
He has not missed a start since 2017 other than a brief Covid interruption. Yes, the most durable starter in baseball. He revamped his workouts after his elbow injury in his 2nd season and according to lots of sources he is an incredibly focused guy on every aspect of staying healthy.
If Nola had an ankle sprain he’d have been wincing during his last 2 starts. This is, as everyone else is point out, a phantom injury to get him right. Phillies need to watch out that they don’t get caught.
I can’t recall anybody getting “caught” for putting a pitcher on the IL for a phantom injury. MLB doesn’t have a star player/playing time rule like the NBA. So there’s really nothing MLB could do about it, even if Manfred wanted to do so, and I’m quite sure he doesn’t want to, because every team does this and has for years.
He suspended the Mets GM for a year. There is plenty he can do about it.
They changed pitchers to 15 days because the Dodgers were being too cute. Used to be everybody got 10 days.
Welcome to the Dodgers school of resting pitchers for a couple weeks it’s catching on
Are you sure it’s just the Dodgers doing that?
Mets have a good starting 5, although Megill is faltering.
Plus 3 more SPs coming off the IL soon.
Blackburn (trade bait?)
Manaea
Montas
Megill for Cedric Mullins? Who says no?
Nola should be better when he gets back.
That .350 BABIP and .295/.356/.505 slash line are unsustainable, especially when he pitches in a division where he’ll get to face the Marlins and Nats offenses multiple times. He hasn’t pitched against the Marlins at all this year so far.
The number of gopher balls have been a bit unusual though even for Nola. He’s already given up 11, after giving up 30 last year and a career high 32 in 2023. (Which was a big jump from his great year in 2022.) IMO, the gopher balls and the 16 BB in only 49.2 IP are concerning,
I was going to ding MLBR for overlooking the walks. He’s at 2.9/9 IPs, which is pretty high for him. I’m hoping it’s because of the ankle.
He seems to be a every other year good pitcher when you look at when he gets CY Young votes. Then mostly good even years too.
Well I’m not dumb but I can’t understand why she walked like a woman but talked like a man, oh my Nola
I love all of the experts on comments boards. Of course everyone “knows” that he isn’t injured, or is injured, or might be injured, or DD is gaming the system.
Pro athletes are playing through issues and injuries all of the time that you never hear about – it is a part of things. And that fine line between the tweak and the minor injury that one can play through vs. the injury that one had better give it some time off is not always easy to determine, even for trainers and their medical experts. Players are also loathe to share at times as well.
So – in essence – we just don’t know so why pretend?
For the past few seasons, Nola has frequently struggled past the fourth or fifth innings. Walker is being ruined in the bullpen. When Nola gets off the IL, he should move to the bullpen with hopes of eventually making him a dominant closer, and Walker should be returned to the starting rotation. The Phils should still make every effort to acquire Helsley from the Cards.
@onthebucks – One of the sillier takes on the rotation that I have seen. Let’s take the guy who had not missed a start for years and who has a 5 pitch mix but is not a high velo guy, and replace him with the guy that has not pitched well as a starter for the past 2.5 seasons but might have the stuff to actually slot into the pen to get some value out of him.