The Phillies know how much it will cost to lock Cole Hamels up to an extension, and the sides appear to be making progress toward a long-term deal, Jim Salisbury of CSNPhilly.com reports. No deadline exists, but Opening Day looms as an unofficial turning point for the negotiations.
One person tells Salisbury that the Phillies are prepared to pay the left-hander in excess of $20MM per season on a multiyear deal. However, contract length is an issue, as the Phillies prefer a four-year agreement, while Hamels and agent John Boggs want more.
Another person said talks have been progressing and predicted the sides will reach an agreement. This means there’s still a chance the Phillies will keep Hamels off of the open market and away from potential bidders like the Dodgers and Yankees. The 28-year-old is on track to hit free agency after the 2012 season.
I only have this to say: as a Dodger fan, it’s a beautiful thing to see the words, “potential bidders like the Dodgers and Yankees” on the bottom of this post, right where they should be.
Now have fun enjoying your 50% raises in ticket prices.
That’s not going to happen, at least not until the Dodgers fields a team on par with the Yanks/Phillies/Redsox and at that point I think fans would be ok with 50% increase (though thats still an exaggeration)
Dodgers tend to drastically raise prices on premium seats only; the big money to be made is on an impending TV deal.
Exactly. It’s likely the $400 seats will be bumped up to $500 or something, but when you have $400 to spend on a ticket, you certainly have $500. I would venture to guess the majority of the seats would cost the same or slightly more.
Rumor has it that it will cost me $500 a ticket to see Hunger Games at one of Magic’s theaters. This will be after I drop $275 on a Grande Latte and biscotti. :-)
As a fellow long-suffering Dodger fan, it’s about time…!
If he replicates his numbers from last season, I don’t see him signing anything less than a 6 year deal ($20MM AAV). He’s young (28), reliable, and left-handed.
pretty good chance he gets that before even having to replicate last year’s numbers
I am really interested to see what happens when the Phillies get old, expensive and less competitive relative to the other NL East teams.
well, the low A system, some of which is now in AA, has won a LOT of games including a championship. They have pretty exciting players that are being developed that will be infused along the way. Also they are increasingly involved in foreign scouting. Soler could be a top target of theirs, and soon. I really don’t think, given the massive revenue that they generate, that there will be the falloff that rival nl east teams are hoping for.
Thank you for the insights. Very helpful info re: the minor league system.
The system is typically ranked between 20th and 25th by sites and experts like FanGraphs, BA, BP, and John Sickels.
yes and that is because of the mlb-ready talent, or lack thereof. Guys like KLaw have stated, that the lower you go is when it gets very interesting. Most of those guys have put a disclaimer on their rankings acknowledging that the system is in line for a real bump up their lists in the next year or two. which is essentially what my post implied.
What exactly are you expecting? People jumping off bridges?
Considering the behavior of some phillies fans… maybe…
“Cole Hamels” come on down your the next contestant on the price is right!!!
“Hey Cole. It’s me, Earvin. What are you doing for Thanksgiving? You heading back home to Southern California? No? Why not? I”ll pay. Just stop by my place in LA on the way out here. I want to talk to you about something.”
4/$80 with 5th year team option @ $23 MM 6th player option $23MM= Potential of 6 years 126MM
I wouldn’t be surprised by an exact duplicate of Cliff Lee’s deal.
It will more than likely be more given A) Hamels is a WS MVP, B) Hamels was better than Lee last year, and C) Hamels is 4 years younger than Lee.
A) CY Young > WS MVP B) Not true C) yes.
A) Neither really that important. The World Series MVP should matter more to the Phillies because Cole Hamels almost single handedly won them a title.
B) Debatable. Cliff put up better numbers but Hamels was more consistent and has been throughout his career. Hamels is more likely to throw a better game than Cliff is… he’s hot or cold. Hamels is steady.
Hamels pitched 13 innings and while he was very good in those 13 innings, that’s a far cry from being a one-man show in that series. Ryan Howard hit 3 home runs, Utley a couple, and Werth was on base 14 times in 5 games.
I am predicting a 5 year 110 million with some kind of player option.
If this happened, The Phillies would have 65-70 million locked up on their Top 3 pitchers alone.
Top 3 pitchers in the MLB
I beg to differ.
– C. Kershaw
This would be a problem if their last names weren’t Halladay, Lee, and Hamels.
Well… they’re very good.
The majority of us are just happy to have he chance with a new owner. It’s easy to be condescending on the internet, but do everyone else a favor and chill out.
It will be interesting to see how close Cole and Cain’s contracts are.
Cole Hamels lefty, Matt Cain righty. Number of lefties with $100 million+ contracts: 6. Number of righties with $100 million+ contracts: 1. Cain will get the dollars per year, but teams will shy away from the years. He’ll probably get $100 million, but not much over.