Repercussions of Hamilton becoming an Angel
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Repercussions of Hamilton becoming an Angel
Matt Gelb, Inquirer Staff Writer
Sure, the Phillies were intrigued by Josh Hamilton. But the sense from front office officials was his price would never sink to a level with which they were comfortable. That sentiment was vindicated Thursday when the Los Angeles Angels reportedly agreed to a five-year, $125 million contract with Hamilton.
The aftershocks will rattle throughout baseball, and Philadelphia is included. The top corner outfielder is off the market; Nick Swisher and Cody Ross could soon follow. The Phillies are wary of offering more than three guaranteed years to any player above 30. Both Swisher and Ross are fits on paper, but not yet in reality.
Now, with Texas scorned by Hamilton and needing some sort of offensive addition, they could enter the market for Swisher or Ross. That would drive their prices up. They could also pursue first baseman Adam LaRoche, formerly of the Nationals, to fill a hole.
The Angels have a surplus of offensive pieces, which could lead to a trade of Peter Bourjos or Mark Trumbo. The timing is not great for the Phillies, who have long coveted Bourjos and may have had him valued above Ben Revere. ESPN.com reported Trumbo will not be made available in trade talks.
Even if there was a possible match there, the Phllies have already exercised almost all of their trade chips. Catcher Sebastian Valle is one remaining piece. There is some pitching depth, but it is slimmer after Vance Worley and Trevor May were dealt.
If the Rangers bid for Swisher or Ross, that could drive Ruben Amaro Jr. to improve his club through pitching additions because the offensive market is prohibitive. The GM has said he wants a "low-risk, high-reward" pitcher to be his fifth starter. There are better options out there and Amaro has money to spend.
Ryan Dempster is off the board after signing a two-year, $26.5 million contract with Boston. Anibal Sanchez, Kyle Lohse, Edwin Jackson and Shaun Marcum are the top available starters.
Hamilton was the white whale, the one "difference-maker" on the market, as Ruben Amaro Jr. said. But with so much money tied into long-term contracts with players older than 30, the Phillies were merely gazing this time around.
Have a question? Send it to Matt Gelb's Mailbag.
- Lol, look you up? What do I look under? Typical, make dopey statements and you won't back it up. Mr tough guy " I won't settle for mediocrity" ooooh really you won't settle oh my what a tough guy. Hey everyone look at me I won't settle for mediocrity. LOL what a tool
— DogBiscuitthedope - Don't forget Victorino,Werth,Coste,Durbin,etc. some of he low risk stuff works out. RAJ was right there with Gillick making those decisions. He'll Gillick even traded Gio for Freddie Sanchez. They ALL have hits and misses. The Phillies will be fine this year, so quit freaking out and saying he same thing every post.
4 years of RAJ = 1st,1st,1st, and 3rd.
I have faith they will make a run this year. You can be miserable and I will enjoy.
— cdedrick05 - You keep talking about all the "top prospects" that Amaro traded. You probably don't get the concept of "you have to give to get" but let's make it easier for you to follow. Let's look at what happened to many of those "top prospects" that you pine for so much:
Jason Donald - .257 avg.
Lou Marson - .220 avg.
Kyle Drabek - 8-15 W-L prior to his 2nd Tommy John surgery
Michael Taylor - .171 avg.
Carlos Carrasco - 10-15 W-L prior to his Tommy John surgery
Jason Knapp - released
So just how much have the Phils missed from trading these "top prospects"? Oh, and I suppose you are still bemoaning the fact that he didn't re-sign Madson last year. How'd that signing work for the Reds?— inky93 - I just get the impression that Rube really hasn't wanted much of what's been out there....he offered decent money to Ichiro, who only wants to be a Yankee...he offered sensible money to Hamilton, it just wasn't enough. Maybe Ross is the guy, maybe they think more highly of Ruf but don't want to tell anybody, cause it's looking more and more that he's your RH hitting OF with power for 2013.....He did ok getting Young and Revere to fill some needs. Again, you don't need $15-$02 mil per year players at every position to win......— Mark1npt
- But Young and Revere aren't improvements. Young hit about as well as Polanco- no walks, no power, lots of double plays- but can't field. Revere is Pierre with less power but better fielding. All-in-all, a wash. The team will be around .500 unless guys like Ruf, Brown or Galvis develop into All-Stars, which will be tough to do with Charlie and Amaro jerking them around. — jtj06
- Hamilton at 5/125 is a good price and ruben should have offered it. hamilton still probably would have picked LA. I would. With all these cable money coming in 2016 why not take the risk. money should now be spent getting the best relief pitcher available. as far as outfield, I'd rather give Mayberry the at bats than Cody Ross. Mayberry has potential to develop into a power hitter with speed. platoon him with Ruf and Brown.
In all reality though, phils probably should start trading players and rebuilding because what they have is not beating either LA team.— high water - I'm not sure I'd make any moves other than for pitchers at this point. With over a third of the team's payroll tied up in the top three starters, you should be able to get to the trade deadline in contention. If you miss that for the second year in a row you let Halladay and Utley go to free agency or move them at the trade deadline, you trade Lee and you start over with only Howard's boat anchor contract weighing you down.— s
- 5 yrs for Hamilton is a joke with a guy with all his baggage. He is a great talent but needs constant supervision.— Dom8
- I've said all along that the Phillies will put out both Ruf/Brown in the corner outfield spots. Revere is a great CF addition at a much lower cost than that of Bourn/Upton. Young will bridge the gap from past 3B's to Cody Ashe/Mikael Franco. I won't be surprised to see Texas offer LaRouche the 3 years he wants, while DC snubs him for only 2. Overpaying for Upton/Bourn made no sense. Hamilton would have been nice, but committing 5 years/$125 million to a stellar offensive force who can fall off the wagon (remember, Ian Kinsler tried to rescue him last offseason at a bar) at any time. Hopefully, for personal reasons, I hope Josh continues to stay away from his personal demons. However, RAJ was smart NOT committing 5 years to a potential issue. Again, I want to reiterate, I only wish the best to Josh. There was a reason why no other team, including Texas would commit years/dollars to Josh. Its a gamble that may pay off for Anaheim. However, the Angels HAVE to outscore everyone w/o 3/5 of their rotation from last year (Santana, Haren, Greinke)replaced (Hansen, Blanton, Williams). Its about time to commit to Ruf in LF. The guy will only give you the power/rbi's everyone is looking for AND from the right side. Brown has to be given a chance, since he has been "untouchable" for the past 3 years. Spending one season on one team with the chance to prove himself may actually pay off. Sign another starting pitcher, and possibly one other bullpen piece (try Soriano to pitch the 8th). Hey, why not think of a four man rotation; actually letting Hamels, Lee, Halladay, and Kendrick pitch on five days rest, unless there is no off day. I'd rather have my top 3 start 37-38 games per season, than 32-33 and have a 5th starter get the other 32 starts. Think out of the box...you may be surprised.— drhoffman
- @centard --yes actually I know that, but wanted to express sarcastically that there was no "multiple" of zero (Hward's value as a player in most categories) that would arithmetically arrive at Hamilton's positive value in those categories ... in any event, based on the low level of intelligence quotient exhibited by most of the posters on this site (including one who self-describes himself as "thedope"), I didn't think anyone would catch this, but good to see there is at least one other intelligent person here (other than the half-dozen posters who generally agree with me and share similar sentiments, thus exhibiting high intelligence ...):)— warbiscuit
- The Ben Revere trade looks worst by the minute. The price for the singles hitting OF who will bat 8th most likely, was two young arms. Now, to acquire a good OF with some pop like Trumbo or Justin Upton, they have to mortgage the farm big time or overpaid for a career platoon player like Cody Ross or an overrated Nick Swisher (they also will lose the 1st round pick). Pagan, like I have been saying, was the guy. He told the media in PR that the Phillies went hard after him, but the Giants offered a little bit more. Too late. Like I said after the season ended, Amaro had to be very creative to put a very good teram this winter. So far, he has failed miserably. He almost got Ichiro to go with Michael Young, who would have made it even worst.— EL Zorro
- You have to think you could get either Trumbo or Bourjos in a trade from the Angels now. I'd take either over Revere.
No way do you give up the draft pick for Swisher, which means Amaro may do just that. Ross at two years might be okay but why bother and he's going to get more than two years somewhere else anyway.
The revelation that they were going after Ichiro really was the lowest for me. We may see Ibanez back at that rate.— s - Still chasing the Nationals and won't catch them with Rube's signings this off season.— Pap
- Any way to get Stanton, I hope.— pedge
- No way to sugar coat it. Phils have completely blown the offseason. Almost no chance to make the playoffs now.— gtnestro
