The Philadelphia Phillies may look at a Cole Hamels trade this offseason and as the 2015 season gets closer, teams like the NY Yankees, San Diego Padres, St. Louis Cardinals, Boston Red Sox and Brewers all could be options for the team, as Philly is motivated to move Hamels.
Hamels comes in after one of the best seasons of his career and teams like the Yankees and Cardinals could use more depth in the rotation. The Yankees have been picking up prospects from other teams and they could look at making a move. The Red Sox are deep now in the starting rotation after adding Rock Porcello and others, but Hardball Talk reports they could look at a deal. The report also says that the Padres are interested after all the moves they made this offseason with Matt Kemp and Justin Upton.
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.
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 Max Scherzer for teams.
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 have had a down run over the past few years and it came after the team was a perennial playoff contender and NL East champion. The team traded Jimmy Rollins this offseason to the Dodgers and they reportedly are also willing and looking to trade Ryan Howard. If Howard and Hamels are moved, Chase Utley will be one of the last links to the World Series winning team. Hamels went 9-9 last season with a sub 3.00 ERA for a bad team and now he could be on his way out to a contender.