Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Nola says no worries on his elbow
Pete Mackanin is the manager of the Phillies. Part of a manager’s job is to worry.
Aside from what the last two Phillies seasons have wrought in the standings — plenty of reason for Mackanin to worry there — he is just as concerned with the health of a guy that’s no longer the Phillies’ No. 1 pitcher, but is still the face of their starting rotation’s future.
Yet Aaron Nola says there’s no reason for his boss to fret.
“I’ve talked to him a couple of times and he says, ‘Pete, I feel great. I’m well rested, I have no issues with my arm,’” Mackanin said Wednesday. “But there’s always that concern, because he had an issue with the arm. He rested it, but there was no surgery. So you’re always wondering about that.”
To Mackanin, good news is worrisome news. At least it might be in this case. But Nola says no, no, no ... no surgery was necessary. And all the doctors and specialists have told him it was just “low-grade” strains of ligaments in his right elbow.
Furthermore, the 23-year-old once- and future staff ace added, he’s ready to put 2016’s worries behind him. This after a platelet injection from specialist James Andrews, followed by a rehab and throwing program that he says has him “feeling good.”
“It was minor,” Nola said. “The (platelet) procedure I had was pretty quick. I took about eight weeks off and during that eight weeks I did rehab for my elbow and they put me on a throwing program. It went well through October and then after that I pretty much knew I was going to be good. I took two months off and started throwing again after Christmas. I’ve been feeling really good since then.
“Definitely tough. I never had an injury like that before and that was tough in itself. But I was hoping it wasn’t going to be anything serious . ... Fortunately it came out that it wasn’t surgical. So I knew I could bounce back really quick, (after) only a couple of months rather than a year or over a year.”
Perhaps more surprising yet, Nola said discussions with team and medical officials haven’t moved him to want to alter his delivery, even if his whiplash release seems to put a lot of stress on the elbow.
“No change in my mechanics,” Nola said. “Right now I feel really good, and really confident about my mechanics right now the way the ball’s coming out and my command.”
See that? Nothing at all to worry about.
“As we get deeper into the spring, hopefully he’ll have no ill effects and he’ll stay strong,” Mackanin said. “You’re always worried, especially about your starters. I’m going to be nervous that one day (team athletic therapist) Scotty Sheridan is going to come into my office and say, ‘Pete, his elbow’s bothering him.’
“You don’t want it to get to that. But you always think about it and worry about it.”
Despite Nola’s latterseason struggles last year, there should be no concerns about his abilities. Coming off a superb partial season in 2015 (6-2, 3.59 ERA in 13 starts after a May promotion), he started slow last April but then got on a roll. He threw six shutout innings against Milwaukee June 5, earning a win that lifted his record to 5-4 with a 2.65 ERA.
But in trying to pitch through increasing arm troubles, Nola would wind up 6-9 with a 4.78 ERA before being shut down at the end of July.
“I’m going to look on the positive side of everything that happened,” Nola said. “The part I had at the beginning of the year and learn things from that bad stretch I had toward the middle and the end of the year. There’s definitely things I can take from that area for this coming season and the future. If things like that happen again, I can fix them.”
So Nola can head to Florida with a little less stress, both in his health and his starting situation.
This time last year, with just a few months of major league work on his resume, he was thought of as the Phillies’ No. 1 starter. But Jeremy Hellickson impressed last season and was re-signed, and the Phillies acquired fellow veteran Clay Buchholz in the offseason. Having two established starters with him in a staff that also includes developing Jerad Eickhoff and Vince Velasquez should take some some of the worries off everyone. Even Mackanin.
But Mackanin said he doesn’t think Nola suffered from putting too much pressure on himself last year.
“I don’t think so, because this guy, he’s pretty cool, calm and collected,” Mackanin said. “He doesn’t rattle very easily, but I think he got rattled once he got hit a little bit. He lost a little bit of velocity and ... he lost command of his fastball which is his bread and butter.
“He’s one pitcher I saw with the ability of commanding his fastball down in the zone. Then he wasn’t doing that all of a sudden and with a slight loss in velocity. That might have rattled him a little more than the injury. But he’s got a strong character.”
••• THe Phillies made official their anticipated signing of outfielder Michael Saunders. The British Columbia native made the American League AllStar team with the Blue Jays last season, though his stats took a hard tumble late in the season. Overall, Saunders, 30, hit .253 with 24 home runs, 57 RBIs and an .815 OPS for Toronto last season . ... Mackanin says third-baseman Maikel Franco is poised for a breakout season. What’s the most important thing Franco has to do to get there? “Get a smaller tighter helmet so that he doesn’t have to hold it while he’s running,” the manager cracked.