A half-hour after the final out was made Saturday night, as the Houston Astros celebrated their World Series victory on the field, the two longest-tenured Phillies players stood side by side in a corner of the clubhouse and reflected on the postseason ride they had always imagined.
Aaron Nola will be back for an encore next season.
Zach Eflin? Not necessarily.
The Phillies informed Nola on Monday that they will pick up his $16 million team option for 2023, an easy call considering his track record as one of the most durable starting pitchers in baseball. Since 2018, the 29-year-old right-hander has made more starts (143) and logged more innings (871⅔) than any pitcher in baseball.
Eflin, meanwhile, declined his half of a $15 mutual option for next season after making $5.55 million this year. He will enter the free-agent market at age 28 and is expected to seek opportunities as a starting pitcher again after coming out of the bullpen for the Phillies once he returned from the injured list in September.
The Phillies have seven free agents, all pitchers: Eflin, starters Kyle Gibson and Noah Syndergaard, and relievers David Robertson, Brad Hand, Corey Knebel, and Chris Devenski. They have until Thursday to pick up second baseman Jean Segura’s $17 million option or buy him out for $1 million and enable him to become a free agent.
It’s possible that Eflin finds his way back to the Phillies, who may also broach the topic of a contract extension for Nola later in the offseason or during spring training. But it may be more likely that the paths will diverge for the close friends and teammates since 2015 at double-A Reading.
If so, their years together will be highlighted by an Oct. 3 game in Houston in which Nola started and Eflin closed the victory that ended the Phillies’ 11-year postseason drought and launched the most memorable month of their careers.
“Honestly, a dream come true,” Eflin said of the Phillies’ unexpected march to a National League pennant and the World Series. “You hear so many stories about it, and you never see it throughout the regular season. There’s so many ups and downs, people not showing up, then people show up, and vice versa.
“But once you live in that moment and you’re on the field with all those fans in the stands, it makes it all worth it when you finally get there. They are literally the fuel to the fire. They inspire you so much while you’re out there. You can’t even hear your PitchCom because they’re so loud. It’s a frickin’ dream.”
Eflin has topped 25 starts and 130 innings only once in his career because he has been dogged by knee injuries. He reinjured his right knee while fielding a ball on June 9 in Milwaukee and wound up missing 2½ months.
Upon his return in mid-September, without time to regain the arm strength to be a starter, Eflin went to the bullpen and allowed one earned run with nine strikeouts in 7⅔ innings for a 1.17 ERA. He appeared in 10 of the Phillies’ 17 postseason games, all but twice in the seventh inning or later, and posted a 3.38 ERA.
But Eflin wants to be a starter again. The Phillies have three-fifths of their rotation in place with Zack Wheeler, Nola, and lefty Ranger Suárez. Although they intend to give 19-year-old Andrew Painter and fellow top prospects Griff McGarry and Mick Abel a chance to win spots in spring training, they almost certainly will add at least one veteran starter in the offseason.
Eflin, who doesn’t turn 29 until April, is one of the youngest pitchers in a free-agent starter market that is headlined by Jacob deGrom (34), Justin Verlander (39), Carlos Rodón (29), and Clayton Kershaw (34), and also features Chris Bassitt (33), Tyler Anderson (32), Jameson Taillon (30), Martín Pérez (31), Taijuan Walker (30), José Quintana (33), and Syndergaard (30).
In 127 games (115 starts) over seven major league seasons — all with the Phillies — Eflin has a 4.49 ERA. The Phillies acquired him for Jimmy Rollins in a 2014 trade that signaled the start of the team’s rebuilding process.
At times this season, Eflin got emotional when discussing his time with the Phillies. In spring training, the Florida native noted that his daughter was born in New Jersey last winter and his family considers the area to be a second home. After agreeing in May to the mutual option, Eflin said he “made it pretty clear that I want to be here long-term.”
“When he first got there, he was told that it was a family-oriented organization. He has always felt that,” Eflin’s father, Larry, said last month. “And that’s Zach’s thing. He’s a family guy. He wants to be here because this is his family.”
Perhaps, then, the sides can still work something out. But there was a trace of detachment in Eflin’s words after the Phillies’ run came to an end in Houston.
“There’s not a doubt in my mind,” he said, “this clubhouse is going to be back and fully ready to compete at the biggest stage in the world.”
It remains to be seen whether Eflin is there, too.
