The Phillies have made it Clear that they might Sign Free-agent Ace Blake Snell

With a clear need in the top of the rotation in Philadelphia, the rumors have been swirling around the Phillies and almost any available frontline starter.

But, according to one of baseball’s most respected reporters, the presumptive National League Cy Young Award winner may not be the Phillies’ first choice this offseason.

The team “appear(s) to be just lukewarm” on free-agent ace Blake Snell, The Athletic‘s Jayson Stark — who began covering Major League Baseball for The Philadelphia Inquirer in 1979 — wrote in a Wednesday report detailing some of the Phillies’ potential plans and options for the winter. The left-hander is a tremendous talent, who seems destined for a second Cy Young Award following a stellar 2023 in San Diego to complement his 2018 nod as the top pitcher in the American League. But as the Phillies look to fill the second spot in their rotation with Aaron Nola becoming a free agent, Snell’s lack of innings — even in his best years — could make the team hesitant.

Phillies Nation‘s Destiny Lugardo wrote on Monday that previous reports naming Snell as the Phillies’ top choice in free agency don’t make much sense, and Stark’s report seems to show that the club follows a similar line of thinking. Nola has been a workhorse for the Phillies since his breakout season in 2018, regularly approaching for eclipsing the 200-inning threshold. Even with some less productive seasons, the team knows Nola will take the ball, make his starts and handle a workload. That isn’t easy to replace in today’s game.

Snell, with two elite seasons under his belt, only tossed 180 2/3 innings in 2018 and 180 innings this year. To his credit, he posted ERAs of 1.89 and 2.25 in those seasons, respectively. But the soon-to-be 31-year-old has never thrown even 130 innings in any other season of his eight-year career, with a handful of seasons with lackluster production in the frames he did pitch. That doesn’t mean he isn’t still a good starting pitcher or even a potential future Phillie, but he doesn’t seem to be the best fit for what Philadelphia needs.

Of course, the Nola replacement in Philly could just be Aaron Nola himself. Phillies president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski called retaining Nola the team’s “priority” of the offseason last month, but the right-hander will be one of the most desired players in free agency. As Stark noted, the club and Nola’s camp appeared to be far apart in extension talks in the spring, and opposing teams don’t seem to think the Phillies will be going above and beyond to sign him.

So, the Phillies will have contingency plans in case they must move forward without Nola. Jordan Montgomery, Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Sonny Gray will be their top free-agent options, per Stark, while Philadelphia could be potential suitors for Corbin Burnes, Tyler Glasnow and Shane Bieber in a trade.