There is no secret the Phillies are in the midst of a very painful rebuilding process. No one is more aware of this situation than Phils ace, Cole Hamels. Headlining the trade rumor mill since the start of spring training, the Phillies front office now finds themselves scrambling to make a decision on “Kid Cole”, especially one that is in best interest for the future of the organization.

The Phillies inadvertently dug themselves into quite a deep hole, due to the poor decisions made by upper management the past few years. After winning the World Series in 2008, the team was all in on winning again and turned into heavy spenders.

At the time it seemed to make the most sense, however some moves and contract extensions were not in the best interest of the team’s long-term success and are now heavily suffering the ramifications for it. They pretty much have decimated their farm system and have been stuck with Ryan Howard’s abominable $125 million dollar contract since given the extension in 2010. The Phillies still owe him $60 million over the next two years and if they want to try and move him anywhere they would have to eat at least $40 million of it, with no guarantees of anything great in return.

Thanks to this and other moves (Hunter Pence trade comes to mind, amongst others), upper management has pretty much depleted the farm system in its entirety, making it incredibly difficult to turn the corner in the upcoming seasons.

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