Hamels says his goodbye to Philly as Rangers deal becomes official

AS HIS TWO young toddlers tried to wrestle each other out of their first row seats, Cole Hamels sat at the dais in the media room in Citizens Bank Park and looked at ease, free of any worries. It's difficult to remember the last time he looked that way.

Less than 48 hours earlier, a year's worth of trade rumors ended. He received word that he was headed to Texas.

"It's a long process," Hamels said of reaching finality in the Phillies quest to trade him in an effort to expedite their rebuilding project. "But I understand that this is the nature and this does happen, and you have to accept it."

It's probably going a little too far to say Hamels was excited to leave, as nostalgia was on the mind during his last day in Philadelphia. He'll make his first start with the Texas Rangers in Arlington Saturday night.

But Hamels, who thanked everyone from the Phillies ownership and front office, to the coaching staff and training staff, fans and media, and also mentioned the three longtime teammates with whom he was happy to share his no-hitter a week ago in Chicago - Carlos Ruiz, Ryan Howard and Chase Utley - was ready to take the next step in his career, too.

"It's kind of like an Opening Day, just on a different team," Hamels said. "When I step in between those lines, it's game on like I've done in the past and like I'll continue to do every fifth day that I possibly can."

The Phillies traded that certainty, having an ace in their rotation providing consistency every fifth day, for the promise of a future they can only hope replicates the Hamels-Howard-Utley-Jimmy Rollins era.

In the three years since Hamels signed his name on the richest contract in Phillies history, the front office became aware that it would no longer be able to field a winning team around him, so, instead, it used his status as a top-of-the-rotation pitcher in his prime to restock the farm system.

Lefthander Matt Harrison (placed on the DL Friday with back trouble) will arrive from Texas along with five prospects: outfielder Nick Williams, catcher Jorge Alfaro, and righthanders Jake Thompson, Jerad Eickhoff and Alec Asher. Williams, Alfaro and Thompson were ranked in the top five of the Rangers system.

In addition to taking the oft-injured Harrison and his contract ($28 million after this year), the Phillies sent an additional $9.5 million to the Rangers. Although it seems odd on the surface - major league teams aren't afraid of doling out big bucks for pitcher like Hamels on the free-agent market - apparently this was the price of doing business for general manager Ruben Amaro Jr. and company.

"Money is an issue in all of these deals," Amaro said Friday, also making his first comments since the trade became official earlier in the day. "We have to factor in nowadays what the surplus value of the talent we're getting back and what it means not just short term but long term for us. We're in a world where teams are buying talent. This is one of the ways we can use our economic muscle to buy talent. I think in a lot of ways that's what we did."

After working through all of the various machinations in the last several months, talking with all of the interested teams, and considering when the best time was to strike a deal, Amaro and Co. thought they couldn't wait any longer.

An argument could have been made to bring Hamels into the Winter Meetings in December, and have him as somewhat inexpensive alternative to the premium pitchers on the free-agent market. Hamels at $76.5 million and two or three prospects, or David Price or Zack Greinke for $210 million while also forfeiting your own team's first round pick?

Amaro - and team president Pat Gillick, who is Amaro's boss, and future team president Andy McPhail, who takes over in October - apparently didn't think that market would present itself in the current baseball world.

"It's hard to predict," Amaro said. "I will tell you this: In this day and age, teams are much more willing to dole out money than prospects. The value of the prospect has increased dramatically. I've had to make a personal adjustment on that, to understand that a little bit better."

The package of prospects the Phillies bought, using Amaro's word, included two position players, Williams and Alfaro, whom the GM identified as "premium prospects" who were "very, very important to us."

"They're guys we think are going to impact our club hopefully in the near future," said Amaro, who had been very familiar with the Rangers system since the teams had been in discussions for months, or years if you include Texas' past interest in Cliff Lee.

When asked what he's learned about trading for the uncertainty of prospects throughout his his seven-year reign, including the disaster that was the Lee-to-Seattle deal, Amaro said there is more certainty with players further along in their minor league careers.

"Those guys were three 20-year-olds that had great ceiling, but very, very high risk because they were down lower," Amaro said of Phillippe Aumont, Tyson Gillies and J.C. Ramirez. "What we learned obviously - and particularly in a situation where you're moving a No. 1 starter - it was important for us to get as close to major league-ready players as we possibly could. With what we're trying to do in the next year, two years and three years, this is the right timeline for the players and the prospects that we got."

If everything breaks right, in 2017 or so, Alfaro will be an All-Star catcher with power, Williams will be the team's best regular outfielder since Hunter Pence, Jake Thompson will slide alongside Aaron Nola in the rotation, potentially behind a free-agent ace, and the other two pitchers, Asher and Eickhoff, are on the major league staff somewhere, too.

Amaro and the front office had a chance to make trades with other teams, but couldn't find a suitable match like the one he found with Texas. They did have the pieces in place for a deal with Houston, but Hamels used his no-trade clause to reject a deal to the Astros.

"He had every right to go where he wanted to, as dictated by his contract," Amaro said. "He had a limited no-trade clause. The fact of the matter is Texas' pieces, their depth, and the way we lined up really worked very well for us. That's the best deal we felt we could make."

Hamels was a little uncomfortable talking about rejecting Houston. But he likened it to free agency.

"You just want to make sure that you're making the best decision, said Hamels, who sat down with his wife, Heidi, for a month this offseason putting together a list of nine teams they'd be comfortable relocating to.

Dallas-Fort Worth was attractive because they have family and friends in the area. But the irony of this week's trade is that Hamels, who wants to play for a contender, is leaving the last-place Phillies to join a Rangers team that entered Friday three games under .500 and in third place in the American League West (though four games back of the second wild card in the AL).

"They have a lot of great players . . . I don't think they're too far away, especially this year," Hamels said.

Hamels didn't rule out a return to Philadelphia at some point, saying he would try to "go as long as Jamie Moyer" in his own career. But that might have been more of those warm, nostalgic thoughts triggering in his brain Friday, the day everyone finally said goodbye.

"There is nothing at all easy about any of these decisions and trades," Amaro said. "Jimmy Rollins, Cole Hamels - they're difficult because these are iconic players for our organization but this is exactly what we set out to do. We got a very good package of players that I think will help propel this organization forward in the future."

Blog: ph.ly/HighCheese