One of MLB’s top free agent arms is off the market.
Aaron Nola and the Phillies are in agreement on a seven-year, $172 million contract, The Post’s Jon Heyman confirmed on Sunday, setting him up to spend the rest of his career in Philadelphia.
The deal is pending a physical, per ESPN’s Jeff Passan, who reported that it’s the biggest deal for a Phillies pitcher in franchise history.
According to Heyman, there is no opt-out or team option in the deal.
The Braves were among the teams courting Nola, but the righty turned down more money to stay in Philly — a stated goal of his entering the offseason.
“Hope I’m back next year,” Nola said after the Phillies’ NLCS Game 7 loss to the Diamondbacks. “Guys come in and out, right? You form relationships and you make good friends each year. New guys come in. You form that bond. No team’s the exact same. That’s the hard part about the business, right?”
Nola allowed just two earned runs over 18 2/3 postseason innings before Arizona got to him for four runs in 4 1/3 frames in Game 6 of the NLCS.
A first-round pick of the Phillies in 2014, the 30-year-old was has developed into one of the game’s most reliable starters, averaging 200 innings per season since 2018 and holds a 26.0 WAR in the span, behind only Max Scherzer (29.8), Gerrit Cole (29.7), Wheeler (26.4) and Jacob deGrom (26.1)
In 2022, he finished fourth in Cy Young voting but underwhelmed a bit in 2023, going 12-9 with a 4.46 ERA, though the underlying statistics pointed toward him being unlucky rather than falling off.
Nola is the first of the free-agent hurlers to cash in this offseason.
Two-way star Shohei Ohtani is expected to command $500 million even though he won’t return to the mound until at least 2025.
Japanese pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto is set to be posted early next week and will be among the most highly pursued players this winter.
The pitcher-heavy market also includes the likes of Julio Urias, Sonny Gray, Lucas Giolito, Martin Perez, Jordan Montgomery, Blake Snell and Clayton Kershaw, though he is unlikely to venture away from the Dodgers.
Multiple teams — including the Mets — are looking for starters to bolster their rotations.