Despite not having a flashy offseason like in years past, the Philadelphia Phillies accomplished their main goals.
They were able to re-sign Aaron Nola, despite him hitting the open market, and they extended Zack Wheeler on a multi-year deal that prevents him from reaching free agency.
For a team with championship aspirations who is currently in their winning window, having arguably the best one-two punch in baseball is a major win.
Wheeler has been one of the best pitchers in baseball since coming to the Phillies in 2020, posting the highest WAR rating among all starters over that time period.
Nola knows how huge it is to have their ace on their roster for multiple years, and is even more excited for what that means for his own game.
"His presence helps me. He's calm. It's good to have a guy like that ... It's just calmness on the mound, no matter what. I've always had that, but it kind of kicked into another gear once he came over here and I was watching him do his thing," the star right-hander told Alex Coffey of The Philadelphia Inquirer.
Despite being one of the best pitchers in the sport in his own right, Nola still uses what Wheeler is doing on the mound and applies that to his game.
"He only has a couple ticks in his delivery ... So I think that's one thing that I've learned — not to have so many ticks in a delivery ... So I just try to simplify mine down to kind of like his," he said.
Hearing that is a great sign for Philadelphia.
Players on the team have routinely talked about how close the players in the clubhouse are, almost like they are family.
That can be rare to find in professional sports.
There are egos and massive amounts of money. With that can cause some issues across a roster who has players competing for time and resources.
The Phillies don't have that problem.
With their two best pitchers working together, that sets a great example for the other young hurlers on the team learning how to make it at the Major League level.
Nola knows the value of having Wheeler around, not just for himself, but for others in their unit.
"Much needed for us. It just boosts our pitching staff that much more. He's our guy. He's our stud," he told Coffey.
It's hard to imagine that this tandem could be even better than how they've performed so far, but both Wheeler and Nola had down seasons compared to what they've done in the past.
With them continuing to feed off of one another, the sky is the limit for this starting staff.
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