
We’re a little over two months into the season, and the Phillies are cellar dwellers as expected. With July 31st slowly approaching, it is widely believed that the Phils are expected to be amongst the most active sellers in baseball. This team currently holds some attractive assets, although the majority are a little bit past their expiration date, to put it nicely. Among the most attractive options, Cole Hamels is the head of the class. The 31-year old southpaw has been viewed as one of baseball’s elite pitchers. He’s been the anchor of the Phillies rotation for his entire Major League career. However, as the Phillies chances of winning became almost miniscule, so did “Hollywood”s chances of ending his career in red pinstripes. Over the span of the next seven days, I will take an in-depth look at the trade market for the Phillies most desirable assets, beginning tonight with our ace Cole Hamels.
Last July was when Hamels really “hit the market”. It became painfully obvious that the Phillies were going through a rebuild, yet GM Reuben Amaro Jr has refused to believe that. He has insisted that the team can still compete, despite not having the means necessary to do so. As a result, the team hung on to Hamels. That move led experts to believe that Hamels would be on the move in the offseason. Amaro dropped the ball in that aspect, as well. This issue has been strung along for going on 11 months now, and there are no signs of it ending soon. It has been reported many times this season, that the Red Sox (rumored to be long interested in Hamels) were not willing to include either of their top prospects in Blake Swihart and Mookie Betts. The focus then turned to the young arms in Boston’s farm system. Henry Owens and Eduardo Rodriguez, the top pitchers down in the farm, immediately sprung to mind. However, nothing has materialized with the Red Sox, and recent reports have suggested that they’re almost out of the race for Cole.
Next up on the list of interested suitors are the St Louis Cardinals. The Cards were dealt a devastating blow earlier this season, when they lost star ace Adam Wainwright to a torn Achilles. St Louis has survived just fine during life without “Waino”. The emergence of Michael Wacha as their ace of the future has been of significant help to the NL Central leaders. They’ve also gotten solid production out of veteran John Lackey, and young upstart Carlos Martinez. Jaime Garcia has even provided excellent production in his handful of starts off of injury. That leaves one open spot in the rotation, which could be utilized for Hamels. Early on in the season, the Cardinals seemed like an almost longshot for Cole. Even with the injury to Wainwright, the St Louis still doesn’t look like an optimal landing spot.
That brings me to the overwhelming favorite, the Los Angeles Dodgers. Los Angeles seems like an almost no-brainer to land Hamels. Coming into the season, they were working with an assumed three-headed monster of Clayton Kershaw, Zack Greinke, and Hyun-Jin Ryu. Brandon McCarthy and Brett Anderson were slated to fill out the rotation, on the backend. Unfortunately, season-ending injuries to Ryu and McCarthy have left the Dodgers rotation in turmoil. LA has relied on spot start names like Mike Bolsinger and Carlos Frias to bring some stability to a shaky staff. While they have filled in admirably, significant regression is expected. With the Dodgers favored to represent the NL in the “Fall Classic”, they will likely need another good pitcher to offset the shakiness on the backend. Back in November it was widely suspected that Amaro wouldn’t settle for anything less than one of the Dodgers “big three” in their prospect system (Joc Pederson, Julio Urias, and Corey Seager). But, the Dodgers “balked” at Reuben’s request. It has proved to pay off for LA, as Pederson has burst onto the scene, playing his way to becoming the favorite for NL Rookie of The Year, and Seager is making a major case to take over the keystone for the struggling Jimmy Rollins. Meanwhile, Urias is expected to crack the Dodgers rotation at the beginning of 2016.
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Tags: Cole Hamels, Philadelphia Sports News, Phillies News, Phillies Reality, Phillies Rumors, Phillies Trade Market, Philly Sports, Ryan Waterman, TalkSportsPhilly, Trade Rumors
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