2
2011
If Phillies Can’t Afford To Keep Hamels, Should Mets Go After Him?
An article by Hojo's Mojo
I read an article today in the Philadelphia Inquirer, that said the Phillies have not discussed an extension with left-handed starting pitcher Cole Hamels.
Theoretically, he is the next in line for a multiyear extension, but those talks have yet to begin. As the Phillies’ payroll grows, it’s natural to wonder where Hamels fits.
Then again, it’s also possible that the Phillies will resolve the Hamels question before next winter arrives. But Hamels’ agent, John Boggs, said recently that the Phillies have not approached him to negotiate his client’s next contract. Boggs said the ball was in the Phillies’ court and he would be open to discussions during the season if the team initiates.
Hamels, 27 this week, is currently playing under a contract he signed in 2009, but expires after the 2011 season. He would still be eligible for one more year of arbitration that could see him eclipse over $15 million dollars.
Can the Phillies afford to keep three starting pitchers who will eat up over a third of their payroll?
Especially with decisions also looming on Jimmy Rollins, Shane Victorino and Chase Utley? Hamels earned just $6.65 million dollars in 2010.
While pitching in one of baseball’s most notorious hitters parks, Hamels has shined. Last season he pitched 208 innings and had a 3.06 ERA and a 1.17 WHIP while striking out 211 batters (sixth best in MLB) and walking 60.
The Phillies are probably in no rush to do anything this season, but by next offseason the rubber will certainly hit the road and they will be faced with some big decisions, chief among them will be the Hamels situation.
It’s a slow new days, and rather than recycling the same old Mets news again and again, lets kill some time debating the merits of the Mets chasing down the young and very prized southpaw.
The Phillies do have one or two gems in their farm system, but they certainly could use some restocking after unloading most of their riches to acquire Oswalt, Lee and Halladay. Also, Pagan would certainly look appealing to a team that may have to fork over tens of millions to keep Shane Victorino in CBP.
About the Author: Rob Johnson
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Why would the Phillies EVER entertain the thought of trading Hamels to the Mets? Even if they can’t afford him and do put him on the trade block teams like the Yankees, Red Sox, Angels, and Rangers are sure to be more likely trade partners. Plus, those 3 teams (esp. the Rangers) have far more to offer for Hamels than do the Mets. You could argue that the Brewers didn’t pay all that much to get Greinke from KC, but Hamels has proven he can dominate in an intense environment in Philly whereas Greinke has yet to even taste a playoff race (through no fault of his own of course). Hamels ability to survive in Philly will only increase his value on the trade market. If Hamels ever does get shopped around, Reben Amaro Jr’s cell phone will single handedly shut down his provider’s service in Philly from the volume of calls he’s sure to receive. Ok, maybe that’s a stretch, but of the teams with a shot at getting Hamels, I’d place the Mets chances somewhere between the Royals and the Bad News Bears at this point.
Thats a good point, but then I realized Amaro is the GM and not Omar Minaya. Any good GM would take the offer that makes his team better. Teams trade in their divisions all the time these days, because the cost of passing up a better deal becaus of rivalry has burned many a GM in the past. Look at the Braves deal for Uggla, or the Mets getting Piazza and Leiter and LoDuca and Delgado. If your deal is sweet enough, thats all that matters.
Dead On 86! They will trade him though at the deadline for whatever they feel they need at that point in time.
My guess it will be for relief pitching which is one of the places they were weak last year or maybe a player to replace Werth.
Nice to have that chip in your back pocket, thats what building from within gets you!
Yankees did the same thing with Bernie Williams.
The Yankees traded Bernie Williams?!???? Who’d they get for him. Funny he never played a major league game out of Yankee Pinstripes. And just like last year, the Phillies are not going to dump a guy close to free agency and risk making the playoffs.
Considering Hamels is younger and BETTER than Pelfrey, the best starter in our entire organization, I would have no problem trading Pagan, Mejia, Gee and Matt Harvey(who is just a Pelfrey clone but not as good). If one of the three pitchers the Phillies gets pans out they would be fine, and Pagan would be theirs for 3 more years at a very cheap salary and as good as Victorino if not better.
i wouldn’t trade 3 pitchers for one, unless his name was Felix
you also have to factor in FA. Will they be able to sign him to a (huge) extension? If not, he is a very expensive 1 year rental.
I bet he stays with the phils unless they totally implode, then leaves for a FA deal.
Actually, Pelfrey is a few weeks younger than Hamels and in terms of ability, it’s too early to say who will be better over the long term.
Too early to tell if Hamels is better than Pelfrey? You’re not serious are you?
Hamels was the WS MVP – but since then, what has he done? He’s been on a succesful team, but really go look at this numbers the last two years.
Why dont you go look at his numbers Jerry! I know his numbers quite well and compared to Pelfrey it’s like comparing Perez to Lincecum. Gimme a break and stop being such a homer. Thank God you’re not a GM.
Last 5 years:
Player A: 60-45, 3.53 ERA, 1.17 WHIP, 8.5 SO/9 (plays in pitchers nightmare)
Player B: 43-41, 4.31 ERA, 1.45 WHIP, 5.1 SO/9 (plays in pitchers heaven)
Which player is better and would you want if you were a GM?
Or do you need another 5 years to decide? LMAO!
Thank you, Happy New Year to you too.
Way way way too much to give up and then to have to pay him on top of that? Better to take the low risk gamble of developing Mejia and Harvey into everything they can possibly be and hopefully getting great production at a fraction of what Hamels would cost.
Trade Pagan and you will regret it every single day for the next 3 years.
Too much expense, too much risk of losing tremendous upside and too much money in just one player. Pass. The only way Philly makes Hamels available is if they know or suspect something no one else does. Buyer beware.
Would you like the three pitchers we gave up for Johan Santana back? Do you think the Phillies want the three pitchers they gave up for Halladay back? These two were in the same situation traded before free agency, and both signed extensions after trade was agreed upon. The only reason Hamels dobt have a Cy Young is because he pitches in that Philly ballpark, put him in San Fran or St. Louis and lets see if he matches Wainwright or Lincecum.
To the other guy, plus Pelfrey has a terrible whip while picthing always in pitchers parks.
Hamels is an outstanding pitcher which is really my point. If Philly were to offer him around, especially with the composition of their current starting rotation that would either say that their FO is dumb or they have questions. No one knows Hamels better than they do. We are not even close to one starting pitcher away from competing with anything other than perhaps .500.
What we need is multiple starting pitchers to come through for us and giving up a CFer too who can fully defend CF in Citi Field and also has an arm, good BA and OB against RHP, some pop and is a great base runner would make moot acquiring an outstanding pitcher anyway. The whole thing is moot anyway as Philly would never consider trading him within the division and I highly doubt they will not be resigning him anyway and they certainly won’t be doing it for the types of guys we got Johan for.
Santana, if he were to come back as the same pitcher he was, Hamels, Pelfrey, Dickey and Niese would be worth giving up fair compensation for I will agree but increasing the payroll 20 million a year to do it with just Matz, Cohoon and Familia in reserve would be completely discounting the likelihood that one two or even three of them have off years, regress or get hurt and then what?
Right now quantity is very important for this team. Lack of quantity is what has caused us to overpay in years and dollars for too many holes on the roster. Counting on just one guy in every position has left us unable to deal with under performance, injuries and prospect stagnation in the minors.
To give up 3 possible cost controlled young starting pitching prospects AND a quality CFer is the type of move a team one player away can afford to make. We have acted as a team one player away almost every year when in fact we were many players away and eventually we ran out of players because of it. That’s why we had so many players running in and out of here through the years that almost no other team in either league would even consider.
easy to say in hindsight that you wouldn’t undo the santana and halladay trades. i guess i can say bartolo colon as a counterexample, although phillips and sizemore weren’t pitchers.
and really, hamels is not santana or halladay. and lastly, these 4 for 1 deals are done to get a team an ace to put them over the top, when you don’t even have a real fourth starter, and your third starter is a journeyman 35 year old, this isn’t the deal you do.
utley is signed through 2013, and will be lucky to be ambulatory after that, so he isn’t a consideration now.
And if they trade Hamels after 2011, they would likely end up having to spend just as much on the Oswalt option to replace him.
and after 2012, they would be counting on Halladay and Lee both at ~35YO with whatever they manage to cobble together on the cheap over the next couple of years.
Phillies will have some interesting decisions to make in the next couple of years though with their big name guys. I expect they let Lidge walk, and Rollins too unless he resigns real cheap.
I thought the Mets have no money? How can they even attempt to acquire Hamels without first shedding some payroll themselves.
Agreed, the entire thesis of the article is silly. The Mets can’t even conceive of spending that much. The Phillies would never send him to the Mets. This will simply never happen.
Try and remember that the author was not being serious but rather just wanted to try and mix it up a bit debating a different scenario.
“It’s a slow new days, and rather than recycling the same old Mets news again and again, lets kill some time debating the merits of the Mets chasing down the young and very prized southpaw.”
And all you guys took the bait to debate something that was meaningless.
You guys?
You mean 86mets, Alex in CT, Metsie, iZ, K Maxx, francis, alwaysnextyear, BryanNYC, Carl, JerryG15, t agee, pete and you who replied with an opinion on this post?
I don’t see how they were baitedif by baited your inferring to tricked if they agreed with the author after reading that the post was merely to “kill some time debating the merits of the Mets chasing down the young and very prized southpaw”?
Nevertheless
Well, considering that the Phils are expected to trade one of their starting pitchers and Hamels will be a free agent shortly it’s not entirely impossible that they would consider trading him. Not necessarily to us but perhaps somewhere else. I doubt it myself but can anyone say that the Yankees wouldn’t be very interested and even pay a premium to get him THIS year?
I don’t see a scenario where Philly fails to keep Hamels but the Yankees do have 6 well thought of pitchers between high A and AAA and two others at 3B in AA and AAA as well as Montero and considering how they lost out on Lee and then lost out on him again….
It would be incredibly ballsy of Amaro Jr. and he better be right if he did such a thing or he might be run out of town.
Unlikely to say the very least but up for discussion? Why not? Even video games are why not this?
Isn’t that the case for the entire site? People post blogs of their opinions, and knuckleheads like you and I reply with our own opinion. Really, for one second does anyone really believe what we all post here means a rats butt in the grand scheme of things?
Seriously, its a blog, its suppose to be fun, maybe a little informative. It is not life, we are not the GMs or on staff at the Mets, fans some with higher hopes then others.
That’s it.
Love the Mets.
I think the Mets would look at it, but i don’t think it would happen. Considering that Cole Hamels trash talks about the Mets every single year, Cole Hamels would have to lay off his trashtalking for the Mets, i think, to offer him a contract. But i do believe they will look at him.
Cole Hamels’ trash talking would be reversed so quickly if he put on a Mets jersey. Baseball is entertainment. Hame;s would talk about the “revnge factor” on Philly if they let him go, and would trash talk the Phils just as well. Its meaningless. Hockey players beat each other up all the time and then become instant buddies when a trade is made.