Phillies have not yet made their offer to Hamels
LOS ANGELES -- John Boggs, the San Diego-based agent for Phillies pitcher Cole Hamels, had lunch with his client here in Southern California Monday, but he had no plans to meet with club officials during the team's three-game series against the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Phillies have not yet made their offer to Hamels
Bob Brookover, Inquirer Baseball Columnist
LOS ANGELES -- John Boggs, the San Diego-based agent for Phillies pitcher Cole Hamels, had lunch with his client here in Southern California Monday, but he had no plans to meet with club officials during the team's three-game series against the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Boggs, in fact, was flying to Boston Tuesday.
That does not mean on-going negotiations between the Phillies and Boggs have broken down. As the agent pointed out, in this age of technology, face-to-face meetings are nice but not entirely necessary.
With the July 31 trade deadline approaching, the Phillies are expected to soon make their best contract offer in an attempt to keep Hamels in Philadelphia, but that offer has not yet been made.
When it is, Hamels will have to decide if it is enough to remain with the Phillies or if the enticement of a potential mega-deal offer from another organization is too much of a temptation to resist. If Hamels declines the Phillies' offer, the team will have to decide if one of the trade proposals coming their way for the 28-year-old lefthander is worth consumating.
Phillies general manager Ruben Amaro Jr. has said it's possible that the trade deadline could pass without Hamels signing a deal and without a trade of the pitcher, but that certainly would not be the best-case scenario for the team.
Stay tuned.
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Buy Phillies tickets Comments (59)
- "Don't you think it would be better two get a few prospects for the two FA to be than getting picks with the risk of not having enough money to sign them? That's the point here."
It all depends on the players. What would you rather get Matt Laporta, Rob Bryson and Zach Jackson or the opportunity to draft Mike Trout? It's all a crapshoot when it comes to non-major league players. You can trade for five top prospects who never pan out or draft one player in the 3rd round who everyone else overlooked who goes to the Hall of Fame. My point is that since it's such a crapshoot it would be better for the Phillies to hold on to Hamels and attempt to keep him in a Phillies uniform the rest of his career.— Eilex826 - no one is going to give us a top 50 prospect for a 2 month rental. Now, if we can package Hamels with Pierre, or Victorino then perhaps we can get a decent return for them— jeff gross
- Eilex826, just because MLB allottes money to sign each pick, lets say a combine $7 millions for the Phillies first 5 pick in the first 2 rounds (remember, the Phillies would have good picks, which will mean more money they have to spend) doesn't mean the Phillies will have the budget to sign the draft picks. There was an article speculating the reason Lamar left it was because he had only a $5 million budget or something to that effect. 5 teams couldn't sing picks this year, including the Phillies, a big market team.— EL Zorro
- Zorro, why are we arguing about this when we both understand it? My only point was that the Phillies, like any team, would gladly take extra early-round picks and take a shot. The amount of money the Phillies are able to spend on such draft picks is a direct result of how many picks they have and in what position. The Phillies will have more money to spend on draft picks if they have more picks in the earlier part of the draft. It will always be up to the team and player to come to an agreement within the parameters of what they have to work with, but it's always better to have more money to spend—and that would be the case with more picks. Even if the Phillies don't sign all their picks, even earlier ones, having extra picks and extra money is not a bad thing. — Eilex826
- ITS SCRIPTED-TO BE SIGNED SATURDAY-DONT WORRY FOLKS,ITS ALL IN THIS CURRENT WINNING STREAK, THAT WILL CONTINUE TODAY, AND MAYBE FOR 10GAMES
If the Phillies make the playoffs, it was DEFINITELY FIXED!!!— flyers11 - I don't think you understand. They won't have extra money if they don't have it in their budget. Just because ML says you can spend $4.5 millions to sign your 1st round pick, it doesn't mean you have available, because maybe you have a budget of only $5. How about the other picks. Nobody is giving you the money, it comes from your minor league budget. That's why the Pirates and other teams, including the Phillies, couldn't sign some players.— EL Zorro
- @El Zorro...I guess I was wrong, and you don't understand the way the new draft structure is set. I agree that no one is giving any team money and that it comes from their own budgets; when I said they were being "given" money I thought you would take that to mean the budget they were allotted to spend would be higher.
Here is where we don't see eye-to-eye. (For arguments sake I am making up the numbers and draft picks.)
Example ONE:
*Based on MLB current rules on the MLB draft if the Phillies have 10 picks in the first ten rounds, and 2 picks in the top 50, they are allotted a pool of $5 million to sign those picks.
Example TWO:
*If the Phillies have 12 picks in the first ten rounds, and 5 in the top 50, they are allotted a pool of $7 million to sign those picks.
This means that if a team is awarded more early draft choices, however they are awarded, they have a larger pool of money to spend to sign said players they draft. Therefore, having extra draft choices awarded to you is not a negative thing, and won't negatively impact you signing players. If you weren't going to be able to sign a player, you weren't going to be able to sign him. Having extra picks, and a bigger pool of money to spend, can only result in positive things happening (even if that means drafting a player you know you won't sign, but preventing him from being drafted by a rival).
I pay attention, and try to clearly understand what is going on in the game of baseball. I even know how draft picks can now be traded, and how that may impact the July trading deadline...do you?— Eilex826 - For example, MLB told the Astros the max they could give Correa as a signing bonus was $7 millions or so. They settle for a lot less. But if Correa would have demanded the whole amount or more they wouldn't have signed him because they didn't have the budget to pay him and sign the other picks.— EL Zorro
- The reason you draft a player is because the ability to sign him. If you did your homework. Why draft a player you can't sign? So other teams couldn't sign him? That doesn't make sense and even less this year because you get an extra pick in the next draft. The reason Appel lasted that long was because teams shied away from his asking price - he had Boras as his agent - and they were right as the Pirates found out. BTW, I follow baseball on a daily basis also, not just the Phillies.— EL Zorro
- I follow baseball on a daily basis as not, and not just the Phillies, and wasn't implying anything otherwise. But we seem to be at an impasse where you just do not undertand what is going on. Any implication that a team would not want extra draft picks due to sign-ability and the new rules is shortsighted. The more draft picks a team has, especially in the higher rounds of the draft, the more money they are allotted from MLB to sign those picks. Teams with ten picks in the first five rounds will not have the same money as teams with three picks in the first five rounds, that is how it is spelled out in the MLB CBA. The Pirates failed to sign their number one pick, who was selected 8th overall, now they will have the 9th overall selection next year, as well as whatever picks they receive for their final league standings in 2012, for their activity in free agency, and their extra picks due to being a small-market/poor ballclub in recent years (those are the picks that are tradeable). The Pirates will not be penalized next year because they have two first round picks. Each pick in the draft (at least through the first ten rounds) has a value attached to it by MLB, and the money a team can spend is calculated based on that—the number of picks a team has and where they are picked. Not every team gets the same amount of money; it varies, and the more picks you have, the more money you are permitted to spend before being penalized. That is the only point I have been trying to make... — Eilex826
- This month may well be the most important Amaro has faced since becoming GM. So far, nothing accomplished and time is running out. So far, he is earning a solid F in handling this situation and each day that passes makes it less likely that he can get done all that he needs to do.— TennPhan
- I'm a huge Hamels fan. I'd be happy for them to keep him through the season just to savor him pitching for the Phillies. It's not like they are going to get anything better than the garbage the Indians got for Sabathia or what the Mariners got for Lee. If Amaro feels that Hamels will give him right of first refusal and that he'll be able to sign him, keep him around. It isn't like Ruben doesn't already have a track record of far outbidding everyone else for who he considers core Phillies.— jtj06
- The Question is: Why haven't the Phillies made an offer to Hamels? Amaro, Jr had better get on the stick as the other Phillie teams are taking all the Hype and print from the Phillies. The 2012 Phillies are at best underachievers and at worst tanking the season. Amaro, Jr must satisfy the edgy fan base. He must sign Hamels to an extension at all costs. If not, it looks like Montgomery and Giles are pulling and dismantle and rebuild. What can they rebuild build on when the team is built to win now and they have many players signed to big contracts. The Fans are not stupid as they know that if the Phillies fail to resign Hamels then they must have a fire sale as in after 1983 and 1993 seasons. I see a lot of players retiring as Phillies which is great but you need a mix of young and old to win. The Phillies must win to put people in the stands. If they do not sign Hamels than who do they replace him with that will fill the stands every fifth day, Jamie Moyer? Surely, not KK or one of the young guns that is on the farm. I do think that Victorino is gone and replaced by Brown in Centerfield. That is the way it appears, if not Mayberry, JR in CF and Brown in LF.— jpelle36
- They just did according to Rosenthal:
http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/philadelphia-phillies-Cole-Hamels-trade-deadline-six-years-guaranteed-071912— EL Zorro
About this blog
The Phillies Zone is the place for up-to-the-minute Phillies coverage from the Inquirer.
Matt Gelb
Inquirer Staff Writer
Bob Brookover
Inquirer Baseball Columnist
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