The Cole Hamels trade rumors are starting to heat up a bit with just a couple months left of the offseason, as Ken Rosenthal at Fox Sports reports that the Boston Red Sox, San Diego Padres, St. Louis Cardinals, Texas Rangers and NY Yankees could be in the mix for a deal with the Philadelphia Phillies, although things have been held up by the high demand of the Phils for Hamels.
Hamels is coming off of arguably his strongest season with the Phillies and the team has been shopping him for most of the offseason. According to Hardball Talk, the San Diego Padres and Boston Red Sox have shown strong interest for Hamels at various points this offseason, but talks did not get deep between the two sides. Rosenthal writes that the Boston Red Sox, San Diego Padres, St. Louis Cardinals and Texas Rangers are the top candidates for Hamels, while the Yankees have also checked in.
The report speculated that the Red Sox could pick up Hamels' $20 million option in 2019 to get the deal to go and he currently is on a five year deal worth over $100 million in total with the option. Hamels is 30-years-old and has a 2.46 ERA on the season with 198 strikeouts while going 9-9. Hamels has been healthy over the majority of his career and he has averaged 200 innings pitched in his eight years in the league, going for at least 204 in each of the past five seasons.
Hamels had a very strong season last year and he put up a very good stretch from May until the end of the season, as Jayson Stark at ESPN.com notes that he had the third best ERA in baseball over his final 27 starts. Hamels put up a 2.06 ERA through that stretch and the only better numbers were from Felix Hernandez and Clayton Kershaw. Stark also notes that during that stretch he averaged nearly a strikeout per inning and had 23 straight starts with three or fewer runs allowed and five innings pitched.
The Phillies went 73-89 last season and finished in the bottom part of the NL East and now the team is in a bit of a rebuild after the trades they made this offseason. Cliff Lee dealt with injuries, leaving Hamels as the best pitcher for the team last season. Hamels led the team in strikeouts and ERA last season and the team ended up 20th overall in ERA and the same rank in BAA and WHIP, while the staff was 19th overall in quality starts. Hamels is another interesting option, as he is coming off of one of his best seasons and while he is due $94 million through the next four years, he will be cheaper than Scherzer for teams.
The Phillies have been shopping a deal for Hamels this offseason and the teams that missed out on Jon Lester in free agency could be interested in trading for him. The Phillies have been reluctant to part ways with Hamels without getting a decent prospect in return and that is one reason teams have not pulled the trigger yet.