The Philadelphia Phillies trade saga involving left-handed ace Cole Hamels received a jolt yesterday when Hamels openly admitted he wanted to be traded.
"I just want to win,'' Hamels told USA Today. "That's all. That's all any competitor wants. And I know it's not going to happen here. This isn't what I expected. It's not what the Phillies expected, either. But it's reality.''
Hamels has arrived for spring training and said that he would not be staging any kind of holdout while the Phillies continue to investigate trades. So far Hamels has drawn interest from several clubs, but general manager Ruben Amaro's asking price has shut the door on a number of trades.
"I don't watch much TV in the off-season, and I had friends texting me and telling me what's going on,'' Hamels said, "so I tried to stay away from all of it. But I'd be lying if I didn't say I was checking the Internet to see the latest.
"I wanted to see where I was going to spend my next four years. Now that I'm here, I plan on being here for the next six weeks. I think it would be pretty chaotic if that's not the case. But it's out of my control."
Hamels has turned up the heat on the Phillies front office, and if they do ramp up their efforts to trade him these are the three best fits.
New York Yankees
The Yankees have been loath to bring on big money this offseason, and Hamels is owed $25 million a season through 2018. They have big injury concerns about their rotation as is though and are in desperate need of stability. Few pitchers have been as consistent as Hamels over the past five seasons-he has pitched 200 or more innings with an ERA never higher than 3.60-and he's still relatively young (31 years old). If Masahiro Tanaka can stay healthy, he and Hamels would be the most devastating 1-2 punch in the American League East, and the team would decrease its reliance on CC Sabathia, who made only eight starts in 2014.
Boston Red Sox
The Red Sox have a killer lineup on paper, but the rotation projects as the team's weak link. It is currently headed by Rick Porcello, a young groundball pitcher who just eclipsed 200 innings for the first time in his career in 2014.
Boston has been one of the teams most closely linked to Hamels this offseason, but they've been unwilling to part with some of their top prospects. Several of the Red Sox' top five starters induce more grounders than is average, indicating that the construction may be a roster construction strategy, but there's no denying the Fenway faithful wouldn't mind having a true ace like Hamels on the mound Opening Day.
St. Louis Cardinals
As constructed, St. Louis appears to have enough pitching to get them to October and beyond. The back of the rotation is extremely young however, while veteran RHP John Lackey hasn't made it to 200 innings in three seasons.
Hamels is a proven commodity in the NL, and balances out the Cardinals' all-righty rotation with an elite left-handed arm. Wainwright and Hamels atop the rotation gives St. Louis a ticket to the best rotation duo party, and the NL Central could be a bloodbath in 2015.
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