Phillies’ Aaron Nola likely heading to triple A next week for his next injured list rehab step

NEW YORK — If you told the Yankees — or the Mets, or the Cubs, or a half-dozen other contenders — that they could trade for an Aaron Nola-level starter, they would fall over each other to close the deal before Thursday’s deadline.

The Phillies will add Nola to the roster next month.

Nola’s timetable to return from the injured list got clearer Friday. He threw 56 pitches to hitters and simulated three innings in a live batting practice setting at Yankee Stadium.

Up next: An assignment at triple-A Lehigh Valley.

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“No pain in the ankle or the rib, and in between [innings], the warmups felt good, too, once I cooled down,“ Nola said before the Phillies opened a series against the Yankees. ”Everything felt normal."

After a bullpen session in a few days, Nola will likely go out on assignment next week, manager Rob Thomson said. Thomson outlined a progression in which Nola would throw 55-60 pitches in his first start, then increase his pitch count by 15 pitches per start until he reaches 90.

In that case, Nola would make at least three, possibly four starts in the minors before rejoining the Phillies’ rotation, which would put his approximate return in mid-August.

“Obviously I want to get back, for sure,” Nola said. “It’s been a little while. I’m here to pitch. It’s what I’m used to doing, going out every five days and taking the ball for this team. Not being able to do it for this long has been tough. But I’ve learned some things during this rehab process.”

Such as?

“It starts from the ground up,” Nola said. “The ankle, I use it a lot more than I thought I did. When things stiffened up, it kind of put some stress on my rib cage. I wasn’t able to rotate as much as I usually do, and I guess my rib took the brunt of the work.”

To recap: Nola sprained his right ankle in early May and pitched through it for two starts before finally succumbing to the injured list for the first time since 2017. As he attempted to return, he felt pain in his side, revealed as a stress fracture of a rib.

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“I learned the ankle is a huge part of my delivery and pitching for me,” Nola said. “I need it to be mobile and strong to keep everything else healthy.”

The silver lining: Nola’s arm hasn’t been a problem.

Although Nola lugged a 6.16 ERA in nine starts with him to the injured list, he pitched well in back-to-back starts against the Cubs and Diamondbacks before injuring his ankle.

Because of the prolonged absence, Nola has thrown only 49⅔ innings. He’s usually up to about 130 innings by this time of the season.

“I feel like I have a lot of bullets left right now,” Nola said. “But I have to be smart about it, too. The body, the arm feels really good. I feel like it would be kind of easy for something to come up because it’s my whole right side, so I’m doing as much as I can to keep all those little muscles in my arm healthy throughout the process.”

After homering Wednesday night, hours after his wife gave birth to their second child, Bryson Stott retrieved the ball from a young fan who asked why he wasn’t at the hospital.

“I told him my wife kicked me out,” Stott joked.

Indeed, after having the baby at about 3:30 a.m., Stott’s wife, Dru, suggested that he play that night. Stott went deep for only the second time since June 18.

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Dad strength or an adjustment with his hands?

“Maybe both,” Stott said, laughing. “Just looking back at ‘23 and the beginning of ‘24, where my hands were, just trying to get back to that feeling. I think the majority of it is timing. I was super early or super late. When you’re too early, you fly out to left. When you’re too late, you might ground out to short. Just trying to find that balance of just being on time.”

It’s a familiar refrain for Stott, who struggled for most of last season. Entering Friday night, he was batting .231 with a .303 on-base percentage and a .642 OPS.

The Phillies are hoping the small adjustment with his hand placement will help Stott repeat his swing.

“He had a lot of waggle in his hands before he made his initial move to get loaded and really was losing his barrel, didn’t know where it was,” Thomson said. “Now that he’s just kind of sitting it on his shoulder, it’s really simplifying his swing.”

In his first start since the All-Star break, top prospect Andrew Painter allowed one hit — a two-run homer by rehabbing Orioles first baseman Ryan Mountcastle — in six innings Thursday night in triple A. He threw 76 pitches, topping out at 98.5 mph, and got four swings and misses with his cutter. “It was excellent,” Thomson said. “He was really good.” Painter has a 4.82 ERA in 61⅔ triple-A innings. … The Phillies wore maroon caps with a Hall of Fame logo in honor of induction weekend in Cooperstown, N.Y. … A street in Moncton, New Brunswick, will be renamed for late former major league reliever Rheal Cormier, who died in 2021. Cormier pitched for the Phillies from 2001-06. … The Phillies signed two more draft picks: pitcher Brian Walters (eighth round) and infielder Logan Dawson (16th round). Dawson grew up in Audubon and attended Eastern Regional High School in Voorhees. … Ranger Suárez (7-4, 2.66 ERA) is scheduled to start at 1:05 p.m. Saturday against Yankees righty Marcus Stroman (2-1, 5.64).