When Aaron Nola was a senior at Catholic High in Baton Rouge, La., his baseball team underwent strength and flexibility testing from the training staff of the New Orleans Saints. One test involved pulling back the throwing arm and elbow until the player said it began to hurt. Nola did not flinch as his arm was pushed back farther and farther. His arm flexibility was off the charts.
The story is worth recalling on this day that the Phillies re-signed Nola, 30, to a seven-year contract that will pay him $172 million through age 37—even after a season in which Nola posted career worsts in slugging allowed, home runs and exit velocity while seeing his strikeout rate decline for a third straight year.
The Phillies did not see red flags in those underlying numbers. What they saw was one of the most durable starting pitchers in baseball who also is a hyper-flexible pitchmaker, not a power pitcher. And those facts are related.
