Skip to content
Link copied to clipboard

The price to acquire Cole Hamels from the Phillies should be steep

When the July 31 trade deadline passed without the Phillies making a single move last season, general manager Ruben Amaro Jr. was openly ridiculed. He was accused by rival executives of asking too much for his players, a charge he vehemently denied.

Philadelphia Phillies starting pitcher Cole Hamels (35) walks off the field after the eighth inning against the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field. (Caylor Arnold/USA Today)
Philadelphia Phillies starting pitcher Cole Hamels (35) walks off the field after the eighth inning against the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field. (Caylor Arnold/USA Today)Read more(Caylor Arnold/USA Today)

When the July 31 trade deadline passed without the Phillies making a single move last season, general manager Ruben Amaro Jr. was openly ridiculed. He was accused by rival executives of asking too much for his players, a charge he vehemently denied.

"We were not looking for exorbitant paybacks," Amaro said. "We were looking for players that would help us, but I think we were very reasonable in the discussions that we had. Frankly, I don't think the clubs were aggressive enough for the talent we have on our club."

It's impossible to know exactly what the Phillies were asking for each individual player, and it does not matter now. Amaro's statement, however, does still have some relevance as this year's non-waiver deadline heads into its final days. The accusations about Amaro and the Phillies wanting too much for their most coveted player have resumed. Actually, they never stopped.

Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports has beaten that drum over and over again since December, and he's only doing it because that is what he is hearing from other teams around baseball. When the Phillies were talking to the Boston Red Sox during the winter, Rosenthal suggested that it was foolhardy for the Phillies to think they could get outfielder Mookie Betts and catching prospect Blake Swihart for Cole Hamels.

Maybe that exact asking price was too high, but the Phillies are not wrong for putting a substantial price tag on Hamels, mainly because of something else that Amaro said at last year's trade deadline.

"In this day and age, I think one of the most over-coveted elements of baseball is prospects," Amaro said. "I don't know how many prospects that have been dealt over the last several years have really come back to bite people in the ass."

Amaro has plenty of tooth marks in his own derriere as proof and it is one of the reasons why his job is in jeopardy. It's also why the general manager is getting lots of assistance from team president Pat Gillick at this year's trade deadline. Amaro got nothing of any value in the Cliff Lee trade with Seattle, the Hunter Pence trade with San Francisco and the Shane Victorino deal with Los Angeles.

But he's not the only general manager who has been bamboozled in an effort to get prospects for a coveted veteran pitcher.

The Red Sox, for example, probably thought they were pretty smart last year at the trade deadline when they traded 35-year-old veteran John Lackey to the Cubs for pitcher Joe Kelly and outfielder Allen Craig, two younger players with big-league track records. Lackey has been by far the best player in that deal. In fact, Kelly and Craig have been so bad that they are already on the verge of being declared busts for the Bosox.

Miami traded Anibal Sanchez to Detroit in 2012 and you're alone if you think the trio of Rob Brantly, Brian Flynn and Jacob Turner was a good return.

Zack Greinke, the best pitcher in baseball this season, was traded from Milwaukee to the Los Angeles Angels in 2012. The Brewers got shortstop Jean Segura and two guys you've never heard of and never will. Segura, 25, made the National League All-Star team in 2013, but his 2015 season is almost identical to the one Freddy Galvis is having with the Phillies. Would you be happy getting Galvis for Hamels?

That's not entirely a fair comparison, because Greinke was nothing more than a two-month rental for the Angels. Whatever team gets Hamels is going to have him for at least the next three seasons for $76.5 million and possibly through 2019 at the relatively reasonable price of $90.5 million. That's not counting what he'll make in the final two months this season.

How much money and how many years will pitchers like David Price and Johnny Cueto command on the free-agent market this winter? More than that is the answer.

This caliber of pitcher with that much time left on his contract is not often available, which is another reason why the price tag in terms of players should be high. I don't know how good the best prospects are on any of the teams that have an interest in Hamels. I do know that if you are an elite team with a chance to win the World Series you will have a lot better chance by adding Hamels.

Cueto was sent from Cincinnati to Kansas City Sunday for three pitching prospects, which was good for the Phillies, because it did not remove any of the big-market suitors from the quest for Hamels.

The team that should be in the hottest pursuit of Hamels is the Los Angeles Dodgers. They could go into the postseason with a rotation of Greinke, Clayton Kershaw and Hamels, which would likely vault them ahead of the Washington Nationals and St. Louis Cardinals as the team to beat in the National League. Is that worth parting with your best pitching prospect - Julio Urias - and possibly even outfielder Yasiel Puig, who has been a disappointment in his third big-league season?

The last time the Dodgers won a World Series was 1988, and that's a long time ago. Hamels is their best chance to end that drought in 2015. Regardless of what the Dodgers or any other team thinks, the right price for the man to most recently pitch a no-hitter should be a steep one.

@brookob