Hamels Traded To Rangers

Hamels will be fondly remembered for the good times.

A 'bird in the hand' may be 'worth 2 in the bush', but the Phils traded their homegrown premier left-handed ace Cole Hamels for a handful of could-be players on Wednesday. 

The Texas Rangers also get left-handed reliever Jake Diekman in the trade for a group of five prospects.

Top catching prospect Jorge Alfaro, horrendous left-hand pitcher Matt Harrison (6.75 ERA, 1.56 WHIP), outfielder Nick Williams and minor league right-handers Alec Asher, Jerad Eickhoff and Jake Thompson will be shipped to the Phillies.

Harrison is a costly nightmare.  He is owed $26 million over the next two seasons after this year. He has made only nine starts since 2012 because of multiple back surgeries.  His numbers couldn't be worse.  It's likely the Rangers required dumping him and his bloated salary on the Phils to complete the trade, for which the Phils may also owe cash.  That explains why dumping Papelbon's $13 million a year (slightly less than the disastrous Harrison collects; 2015 Salary: $13,200,000) was a prerequisite hours before collecting Harrison.

The best potential net for the Phils in this deal are the trio of catcher Jorge Alfaro, right-hand pitcher Jake Thompson (the Rangers top pitching prospect) and outfielder Nick Williams, who were ranked, respectively, by Baseball America as the Rangers' 3rd, 4th and 5th-best prospects.  However, Alfaro (22) had a season-ending ankle injury last month.

The Phillies had told several teams interested in acquiring Hamels that they'd like to get their "best" offers by Wednesday.

The Phillies had continued to speak with a large number of teams about Hamels, a group known to include the Dodgers, Cubs, Giants, Astros, Diamondbacks, Yankees and Red Sox.

Hamels' next start was scheduled for Thursday against the Braves, the night before the deadline, but that is being pushed back one day until after Friday's 4 p.m. trade deadline has passed.

Hamels threw a season-high 129 pitches in Sunday's no-hitter over the Cubs at Wrigley Field. He is 6-7 with a 3.64 ERA in 20 starts.

Cole 'Hollywood' Hamels, who was rumored to be headed to the Dodgers, will head south instead, to Texas.  The Rangers can hardly be what Hamels wanted.  They have been playing without injured ace Yu Darvish and #2 starter Derek Holland.  They are, consequently 47-52 and on the verge of winning absolutely nothing.

Hamels has said repeatedly that he wants to "win now," while this move will give him only a better chance of winning later.  "I just want to win,'' Hamels said in a February interview. "That's all. That's all any competitor wants.  And I know it's not going to happen here... I want to go to a place where I can win again." 

To complicate matters further, the Rangers are in one of baseball's most competitive divisions, the AL West.  The division leaders are the highly touted, young, deep Astros, who Hamels blocked a trade to, followed closely by the formidable Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.

The 3rd place Rangers can expect to continue looking up at their division foes for the time being, while eyeing a long-shot Wild Card birth as soon as next year.  Hamels, who turns 32 this year and whose ERA and WHIP are as high as they've been in 6 years, can't love those odds to return to postseason glory.

He's gone from a big fish in a small pond to a big fish in a very big pond.

In Philadelphia, he'll be missed and fondly remembered for the good times he helped usher in.

He finishes his Phillies career 114-90 with a 3.30 ERA, 2 All-Star appearances (2007 and 2012) and 7-4 with a 3.09 ERA in the postseason (2007-2011), including 4-0 with a 1.80 ERA in 2008 when the Phils won it all and 1-2 with a 7.58 ERA in 2009 when, without him, they probably would have again. Famously, he became only the 5th player in baseball history to win 2 postseason MVP awards in the same year when he won both NLCS and World Series MVP in his storied 2008 postseason, the Phillies most dominant of all-time.

Hamels was asked in May, 2011 if boos show that a fan cares. “Yeah, they do,” he replied. “That’s the way I see it. Mike Schmidt told me that, when I was younger in the minors. Shoot, he’s probably been the most-booed person in Philly [history], and he’s the best player.”

That appreciation and understanding of Philly fans was a far-cry from Hamels' former claim that Philly fans were, "40% Passionate die-hards, 60% crazy lunatics and fair-weather fans."

"I go for it every game," Hamels said. "I have high expectations of myself. I feel comfortable. I feel I’m meant to be out there."

"I was fortunate enough for the Phillies to draft me, knowing that they were trying to put together a really good team, and now being a member of what they were able to establish is something I can't thank them for enough.”

For more on Hamels, please see: Hamels is King of 4 Aces' Hill.