The Phillies’ Aaron Nola prepared for a bounce-back season with some ‘honest truth’ from catcher brother

CLEARWATER, Fla. — After seven mostly solid, many excellent seasons in the City of Brotherly Love, Aaron Nola chose to prepare for the eighth by getting some actual brotherly love.

Not a bad idea considering his older brother, Austin, 32, is the San Diego Padres’ catcher.

“He’s the only guy that really knows me the best, more than anybody,” Nola, 28, said Tuesday before a Phillies workout here in which he unleashed 25 pitches to hitters in live batting practice. “He’s not afraid to tell me what I need to do and what I don’t need to do, which, I like that a lot.”

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Over the years with the Phillies, Nola has heard plenty of opinions. He has had five pitching coaches (Bob McClure, Rick Kranitz, Chris Young, Bryan Price, and Caleb Cotham) and worked with six catchers (Carlos Ruiz, Cameron Rupp, Jorge Alfaro, Andrew Knapp, J.T. Realmuto, and Rafael Marchán). Sometimes he’s leaned on his two-seam fastball, others on his four-seamer. He has added and subtracted from his curveball and changeup. He has even dabbled with a cutter.

But after last season, when his ERA rose to 4.63 and he allowed a league-leading 82 two-strike hits, Nola needed the advice that only his brother could give. So rather than packing up and heading to Florida on Feb. 1, amid on-again, off-again labor talks between Major League Baseball and locked-out players, he drove from Louisiana to Austin’s home in San Diego for two weeks of Nola-to-Nola bullpen sessions for the first time in probably three or four years, if Aaron’s memory serves.

“He just kind of gives me insights and stuff, like this [pitch] was better than this, or if this felt better than that, then I’d do this,” Nola said. “Nothing huge.”

Such as? Nola didn’t share specifics (although he later said he’s working on making his delivery “more compact”), other than to say Austin’s opinions were, well, unvarnished.

“I wouldn’t say he’s brutally honest, but he’s just direct,” Nola said. “Brother to brother, we don’t beat around the bush. We’re going to tell each other the honest truth. That’s why I went out there. I wanted to get some feedback from him. It was really good.”

The Phillies need Nola to be effective, particularly at the beginning of the season. With ace Zack Wheeler slowed by shoulder soreness in December and by the flu this week, and Ranger Suárez delayed by visa issues in Colombia, the rotation may be shorthanded in April. Nola seems to be in line to start his fifth consecutive opening day, the longest streak by a Phillies pitcher since Steve Carlton started 10 in a row from 1977 to 1986.

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It may seem pollyannaish, but it’s also reasonable to look at Nola’s 2021 season and conclude that his biggest problem was his luck.

Consider: Opponents hit .309 against him on balls in play (.300 is considered average). His FIP — short for “fielding independent pitching,” a measurement of runs allowed only through events that are within a pitcher’s control (homers, walks, hit by pitches) — was 3.37, more than a run lower than his ERA.

“Yeah, I think there was some luck there,” Nola said. “But I can only control what I can. It’s baseball. It’s unpredictable. The balls get through places that you wouldn’t think.”

The Phillies had among the worst infield defenses in the majors last year. With the same personnel slated to return, their best hope for shoring things up is new infield coach Bobby Dickerson.

Nola threw fewer sinkers (14.1%) compared to 2020 (21.6%), a decrease that he said was coincidental. According to Nola, he often had less feel for the sinker than his four-seam fastball, especially early in the season. And his sinker usage was in line from the previous two full seasons (10.8% in 2019, 12.9% in 2020).

Regardless of the pitch selection, Nola concedes he didn’t throw enough quality pitches with two strikes. Few pitchers work ahead in count as consistently as Nola, who got to two strikes in 459 of 749 plate appearances (61.3%). He racked up 223 strikeouts, six shy of his career-high, and opponents batted only .186 against him after two strikes.

But when they put two-strike pitches in play, they hit .338.

And it made all the difference.

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“I did make some bad pitches with two strikes,” Nola said. “Two strikes is the time to put ‘em away.”

The solution?

“Make better pitches with two strikes,” Nola said, smiling.

Surely it came up during the Nola Brothers’ work. Something else that came up: Aug. 21, when they faced each other for the first time.

Austin, a survivor of eight minor-league seasons and a mid-career position change from infielder to catcher, went 0-for-2 with a walk against his younger brother. He was on deck in the ninth inning, with two outs and the Phillies leading 3-1, when Jake Cronenworth tagged Aaron for a game-tying two-run homer. The Phillies lost, 4-3, in 10 innings.

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“I was messing around with him, saying I looked on deck and Austin was there and I’m thinking, ‘I ain’t [walking Cronenworth] and facing you with two outs in the ninth for you to try to win a game,’” Nola said, laughing. “Wouldn’t that be a story? That would be crazy.”

Nola then dropped a clue about some of what they worked on last month. He noted that Austin got a better look at his curveball, which he didn’t throw much that night in San Diego.

“I just like being around him because he cares a lot,” Nola said. “He’s intense behind the plate. He loves to work the pitchers. He loves to learn his pitchers and what can make them better.”

Especially when they’re family.