Kizz Fastfists wrote:Hamels at the top of the rotation for the next 5 years would be nice. The problem is that his contract is basically at what he is worth so if the Phillies want the type of packages that were rumored at the deadline there is very little chance the Cubs would work something out for him. If the Phillies are trying to dump the salary and are willing to take 1-3 solid prospects like Candelario, Amaya, Villanueva, Bruno, Vogelbach, etc then I'd do it. Then you have the other issue of Hamels using his veto power to avoid Chicago.
I wouldn't give up Bryant, Russell, Soler, Pierce Johnson, C.J. Edwards or Tseng. Hamels is a 4 fWAR pitcher and a legitimate ace, but his contract prevents any value from being extracted there. Still, there is an advantage to trading for Hamels over trying to sign Lester or Scherzer in that there is no guarantee that either of them want to come to Chicago. I'm just not a fan of giving up big time prospects for a guy who isn't going to be worth his contract, probably coming $10M short over the rest of the deal. Not a significant leak and probably less then you'd have in signing Lester or Scherzer, but still the lack of surplus value means you do not give up any of the prospects you expect to be playing for you next year or be significant pieces in 2016. The best offer I would make is Almora straight up or McKinny, Vogelbach and Amaya.
Great post. Article made it sound like Hamels wasn't opposed to Chicago in 2012, so I guess the bigger concern would be what kind of deal would make it work. Not sure if Philly is really serious or Amaro is saving face by trying to make it look like he was trying to make a deal at the deadline and just ran out of time. He caught a lot of heat.
Curious as to what the Insider article had to say about possible Hamels deals with the Cubs.
