Aaron Nola is a dark horse to win NL Cy Young
Drew Silva explains why Aaron Nola appears to be getting a bit overlooked this year, despite having the potential to be a top-five overall fantasy starter.
Video Transcript
- If you had to pick a dark horse NL Cy Young candidate this year beyond the clear favorite Jacob deGrom, you might go with Yu Darvish or last year's winner Trevor Bauer or Walker Buehler. But don't rule out Phillies ace Aaron Nola. His strikeout rate has been on the rise for three straight years up to a 12.1 K per nine in 2020. His curveball last season was one of the very best pitches in the majors. And he pair it with a really good changeup. He has a decent enough fastball, but he's thrown less of that lately while upping the use of his sinker.
It's all worked out to really great results. Nola rose fast as a prospect and achieved a good amount of success early on in his career, including a third place finish in the NL Cy Young vote in 2018. But it now feels like he's somewhat underrated at age 27. Phillies manager Joe Girardi will probably entrust him with a fairly large overall workload, which matters this season in the wake of a condensed schedule. Nola, working late in the games on a team with high-level talent, can be a top five overall fantasy starter.