The Philadelphia Phillies are still looking at a Cole Hamels trade before the 2015 season and teams like the NY Yankees, St. Louis Cardinals, San Diego Padres, Boston Red Sox, LA Dodgers and Texas Rangers could be interested in making a move over signing James Shields in free agency with just a month out until Spring Training.
Hamels has been shopped for most of the offseason and so far general manager Ruben Amaro has not been satisfied with the packages offered to him. According to Hardball Talk, Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports reports that at least five teams are still looking at trading for Hamels and that the San Diego Padres are one of the teams that is looking into it. Passan writes that Amaro likes Andrew Cashner from the Padres and they work out a deal, that is who he will go for.
Hamels is coming off of one of the best seasons in his career and the lefty still has four years left on his contract and a decent amount of money at $22.5 million per season. Hamels also has a vesting option and that could be making it a bit harder to deal him. According to Andrew Marchand at ESPN.com, the Yankees could be an option to go for Hamels after Brian Cashman made some deals to get young prospects, but right now it is unlikely.
The Yankees have a need at the starting pitcher position and many think they could go after Shields if he continues to stay on the market. The team is coming back after dealing with serious injuries to Masahiro Tanaka, CC Sabathia and Ivan Nova last season and they need more depth in the rotation. Passan writes that the Padres could be motivated after making numerous moves this offseason and adds that Hamels is from the city and the team is not on his no trade list. Shields also could be an option for the Padres, as he has said he would like to play close to the west coast where he lives in the offseason.
The Padres traded for Matt Kemp and Justin Upton while making a number of other significant moves like adding Wil Myers and now Hamels could be next. If the Phillies do not trade Hamels before the season, there is a good chance that he will get dealt at the trading deadline. Hamels comes in after going 9-9 last season in 30 starts, but he once again had over 200 innings and 198 strikeouts while putting up a strong 2.46 ERA.
Jason Stark at ESPN.com writes that Hamels was one of the best pitchers in baseball during the second half season and if he keeps that up, he will be a main target at the deadline. Other pitchers that also could be in the mix to get traded this year include Doug Fister and Jordan Zimmermann from the Nationals. The Nats signed Max Scherzer and now could look at trading one of those players or they could consider moving Stephen Strasburg if they get the right package. Hamel originally signed a $140 million extension with the Phillies in 2012.
