Aaron Nola hopes Phillies can sign Zack Wheeler to an extension: ‘We need him a lot’

Aaron Nola took a pass on a contract extension with the Phillies seven months before becoming a free agent for 17 days. In the end, though, all that mattered to the pitcher and the team was that they wound up staying together.

Could the Phillies reach a similar resolution with Zack Wheeler?

“I hope we can,” Nola said Wednesday before receiving the Ed Snider Humanitarian Award at the 119th annual Philadelphia Sports Writers Association banquet in Cherry Hill. “I really hope we can. I’ve enjoyed my time with him a lot.”

» READ MORE: How the Phillies closed the seven-year, $172 million megadeal with Aaron Nola

A year ago, Nola was in Wheeler’s position: under contract for one more season and bracing for talks with the Phillies on an extension that would take him off the free-agent market before he ever arrived.

It’s difficult to fathom now, considering how much the Phillies wanted to keep Nola and how little Nola wanted to leave, but the sides were unable to reach an agreement. Truth is, they didn’t even get close. So, with one week left in spring training, they agreed to stop negotiating until after the season.

The Phillies intend to approach Wheeler about an extension this spring, multiple league sources have indicated. It might be their No. 1 priority before opening day. They signed him for five years and $118 million in the 2019-20 offseason, and he has been among the best free agents in franchise history, with a 3.06 ERA, 675 strikeouts in 629⅓ innings, and back-to-back dominant postseasons.

But the path to a new contract could be every bit as winding as Nola’s route to an eventual seven-year, $172 million pact.

For one thing, Wheeler is three years older than Nola. He will turn 34 in May, and although his next contract won’t match Nola’s in length, Wheeler can reasonably seek four or five years based on having pitched better from ages 31 to 33 (135 ERA+) than from 27 to 29 (100 ERA+) with the Mets.

Wheeler also could command upward of $30 million per year. A half-dozen starting pitchers have topped that mark, including three (Max Scherzer, Justin Verlander, and Jacob deGrom) who are older than Wheeler.

» READ MORE: How much will it cost the Phillies to keep Zack Wheeler beyond 2024?

And while the risk in a lengthy contract extension for a starting pitcher rises when he’s in his mid-30s, the Phillies lack an internal top-of-the-rotation replacement for Wheeler now that top prospect Andrew Painter’s arrival is delayed until 2025 after Tommy John elbow surgery.

“To me, [Wheeler] is one of the best pitchers in the league,” Nola said. “He’s one of the most humble as well in how he goes about his business. It’s very cool to see. I saw it when he was with the Mets for quite some time, but being right next to him, being in the same dugout as him, it’s pretty special.”

In the abstract, the allure of free agency intrigued Nola, who knew only one organization. In reality, the thought of moving elsewhere wasn’t appealing, even though he received early interest from several teams, including the rival Braves and powerhouse Dodgers.

The Phillies are Wheeler’s third organization. He was drafted by the Giants in 2009 and dealt to the Mets two years later. But he has forged strong relationships with pitching coach Caleb Cotham, Nola, and others in Philadelphia. His wife’s family is in New Jersey. She’s expecting their third child later this year.

Like Nola, then, Wheeler might feel a strong tug to stay put.

The Phillies’ top two starters have seen each other once and talked “here and there,” according to Nola, since the crushing Game 7 loss in the NL Championship Series. Nola, who lives in St. Petersburg, Fla., said he’s eager to catch up when Wheeler arrives in Florida for spring training.

» READ MORE: Aaron Nola is staying home, a big factor in his decision to remain with the Phillies

It isn’t Nola’s style to handicap the odds of a Wheeler extension, even though he’d be uniquely suited to do so. He said he hasn’t paid much attention to the free-agent pitching market, which yielded multiyear deals for Sonny Gray (three years, $75 million from the Cardinals), Eduardo Rodriguez (four years, $80 million from the Diamondbacks), and Yoshinobu Yamamoto (12 years, $325 million from the Dodgers) but has dragged for Jordan Montgomery and NL Cy Young winner Blake Snell.

“I haven’t followed it too much,” said Nola, whose wife is due with their first child in early April. “I’m blessed that I signed early and I’m back with the team I’ve always been with. To get everything outside of baseball lined up, that was one of the big things. It’s easy to look at the baseball side of things, but there’s a life that goes outside of baseball.”

» READ MORE: Meet the young executive trying to make the Phillies into an analytics leader

Ultimately, Nola decided his best life involved playing in Philadelphia, even if it took seven months and a two-week nibble at free agency to clinch it for him.

Now, it’s Wheeler who will face that choice.

“Really hope we can have him for a little longer,” Nola said. “He’s done so much for this team and this organization the years he’s been here. We need him a lot.”