Philadelphia Phillies left-hander Cole Hamels reportedly wants a trade, and despite the team's eagerness to sell off their veterans for prospects in an effort to rebuild, Hamels, their most desirable player, is unlikely to move.
"He was neutral when I talked to him,'' Phillies general manager Ruben Amaro said of Hamels' eagerness to leave Philadelphia. "Happy to go. I think he wants to win, but he signed his contract, and he plans on honoring the contract, obviously.''
Hamels was just 9-9 last season for the last-place Phillies, but he posted a 2.46 ERA, struck out 8.71 batters per nine innings, and hurled more than 200 innings for the fifth consecutive season. Hamels is 30 years old, durable, and missed 200 strikeouts for the third straight season by two whiffs. Despite all that, Hamels is going to be very difficult for Amaro to move.
Amaro is reportedly asking for three high-level prospects in exchange for Hamels, who already has a prohibitive contract that locks him up for at least four more years at $22.5 million per.
"You've seen in the last several years that those prospects are highly coveted,'' Amaro said. "It seems like teams are more apt to just spend money, because it's just money. It's not entities that they're giving up as far as players are concerned, or talent. That's kind of the trend we're in."
On top of the high asking price, the 2014 free agent market is rich at the top in pitching. Former Cy Young winner Max Scherzer is at the top of the list, followed closely by World Series-winning left-hander Jon Lester, who is 31 years old and coming off the best season of his career.
James Shields is also available, and while he's a tier below the top two, he is a valuable innings-eater who consistently delivers an ERA in the 3.50 range or lower.
"It's no secret that the free agent market will kind of dictate where this thing goes, I think,'' Amaro said. "Particularly in our situation because it's not a deep free agent market. But at some point the dominoes will start to fall and then we'll see where it takes us."
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