Aaron Nola, Rhys Hoskins would ‘love’ to stay with Phillies but uncertainty looms after Game 7 heartbreak

Aaron Nola and Rhys Hoskins leaned side-by-side Tuesday night on the rail of the dugout with their chins tucked in their arms as they watched the final moments of what could be their last night in a Phillies uniform. The team’s longest-tenured players were drafted a day apart in 2014, broke in with losing teams, became prizes of an arduous rebuilding process, and played for four managers before the Phillies finally reached October.

And now — after a crushing 4-2 loss to Arizona in Game 7 of the National League Championship Series cost the Phils a second straight pennant — it could all be over. The two mainstays — Nola debuted in 2015, and Hoskins arrived two years later — will become free agents after the World Series. For Hoskins and Nola, Game 7 may have been it.

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“It’s tough,” Nola said. “I hope I’m back, for sure. I don’t know what the future holds yet. … I’ve been through it all over here. Almost a hundred-loss team, a rebuilding era, to what we are now. A really good team, a really good organization and club. I’ve been blessed to be a part of that and see it through. A championship one of these days would be great.

“We’ve come a long way from when I came up in 2015. To be a part of that and see everything through to what we are now, I’ve been pretty blessed.”

Nola will likely be the No. 1 starting pitcher on the free-agent market and replacing his production — he leads the NL in innings since 2018 — would require an external replacement if the Phillies opt against signing him.

Hoskins, who did not play this season after tearing his ACL a week before opening day, could be an odd man out after Bryce Harper learned to play first base this summer and Kyle Schwarber seems locked in as the designated hitter.

Nola is the team’s best homegrown starter since Cole Hamels and Hoskins is their best homegrown power hitter since Ryan Howard. They were bright spots on bad teams and leaders on winning teams as they helped push the Phillies back to relevance. There’s no guarantee that either returns.

“I would love to be back here,” Hoskins said. “This is a team that has a ton of fun and we’ve seen that all year long. They’re fun to play with, they’re competitive as hell, and we have a chance to win the World Series here every year with this group. That doesn’t exist around all of baseball and that’s something that’s important to me as a competitor. It’s an easy organization to be a part of.”

Hoskins spent most of the month in Florida, rehabbing at the team’s Clearwater complex with the goal of being able to play in the World Series. He said he felt like he was ready. The Phillies arranged for him to fly Tuesday afternoon to Philadelphia so he could be with the team for Game 7. Hoskins’ plane landed at 6 p.m. and he drove straight to Citizens Bank Park, finding a spot in the dugout just before the first pitch.

“Just to take this scene in one more time was also at the top of my list,” Hoskins said when asked why it was important for him to be at Game 7.

Plastic tarps remained rolled atop the lockers in the Phillies clubhouse, ready to protect the stalls from the month’s fourth champagne celebration. But that wasn’t needed on Wednesday. The clubhouse was instead quiet after the Phillies lost for the fourth time in five games, completing a stunning collapse that could scar a generation the same way that finishes in 1964, 1977, 1993, and 2011 did.

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Hoskins circled the room, stopping at nearly every stall to hug each teammate and whisper encouragement. Nola sat at his stall while teammates wheeled their chairs over, gathering for one final huddle in a quiet clubhouse.

“Everyone wants to be a part of something bigger than themselves and this team was clearly that,” Hoskins said. “It’s a group of guys who were destined to be great. We were. We just came up short tonight.”

“He’s great, man. I’ve been with him for a while,” Nola said of Hoskins. “Such a good dude and a good teammate. He means so much to this team and this city. One of the best guys, best teammates that I’ve ever been around.”

Near Hoskins’ stall was a sheet of paper detailing the team’s schedule for Game 7, listing the times for batting practice and stretching and everything else players do before first pitch. On Wednesday, the sheet said, the Phillies would fly to Texas. That’s where they planned to start the World Series. The World Series was where Hoskins hoped to get his chance after spending an entire season working for one. And that’s where Nola would get a shot at redemption after coming up short in Game 6.

But the team’s longest-tenured players, leaning on the dugout rail for potentially the final time, could only watch on Tuesday as that flight to the World Series was canceled.

“I’ve grown up here,” Hoskins said. “I learned a lot of things about life here. I learned a lot of things about baseball here. That’s not something that I take lightly. I created a lot of great relationships with people who will be in my life forever within this town and within this organization.

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“You look at the team that was here in 2016 and 2017 and look at the team we have here now. No disrespect to anyone who was a part of those teams. I was a part of one of those teams. But the players we have now are the types of players who end up on the top-five lists of baseball. These are the types of players who you consider the best in the game. It’s really cool for this organization. It’s amazing for this city and the city has grabbed on to everything that they can with this team and supported us from the bottom of their heart.”