8:04pm: The Astros are “making [a] big push” to add Hamels even after nabbing rental starter Scott Kazmir, Crasnick tweets.
Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports updates the names that have been discussed between the Rangers and Phillies, noting that not all would be included in a theoretical deal. (Links to Twitter.) Catching prospect Jorge Alfaro, young righty Chi Chi Gonzalez and Luis Ortiz, and outfielders Nick Williams and Lewis Brinson have all come up recently, per Rosenthal.
Texas will not move Nomar Mazara in a deal for Hamels, he says, and would only include Alfaro if the Phillies pay down more of the deal. The club is also hesitant to part with Gonzalez, who made his major league debut this season. As Jon Heyman of CBSSports.com reported earlier today, the Phillies are focused on adding Alfaro or Mazara if they strike a deal with the Rangers.
Heyman adds that the Phillies continue to dangle Hamels to the Yankees in hopes of acquiring either Luis Severino or Aaron Judge. He suggests that could be an indication that the team is not really satisfied with what it’s being offered elsewhere.
4:19pm: There’s a late possible dark horse in the Cole Hamels sweepstakes, according to Jerry Crasnick of ESPN.com, who says that the Diamondbacks have “reached out to the Phillies to express their interest.” (Twitter link.)
While Arizona seems an unlikely suitor, as they sit five games under .500 entering today’s action, their situation is not necessarily much different from the Rangers, who are reportedly among the teams in most active pursuit. It would seem that the D’Backs are mostly interested in adding Hamels for the future, though he would certainly bolster their marginal Wild Card chances. With an obvious
It’s worth bearing in mind that the Diamondbacks have very little in guaranteed commitments for the future. Next year’s current tab is just over $27MM at present, though of course there will be some arbitration salaries to account for, and it only goes down from there. With an obvious need for both current and long-term improvement in the rotation, it makes sense that Arizona is exploring the market for future-oriented pitching additions.
The Hamels contract is sizable, but manageable for the mid-market D’backs. He is owed $22.5MM annually from 2016-18, and comes with a $20MM option for 2019 ($6MM buyout). That kind of cash likely won’t buy a top-line starter through free agency, so Arizona may see an opportunity to get such an arm at a discount.
Of course, that doesn’t mean that there wouldn’t be a steep price to pay in terms of talent. The Diamondbacks are generally viewed as having a middle-of-the-road farm, but they do have plenty of quality young pieces at or near the big leagues — including arms like Archie Bradley and up-the-middle infielders such as Chris Owings. It would obviously be foolish to speculate as to what the club might be willing to offer, or what the Phillies might hypothetically look to bring back, but Arizona possesses sufficiently intriguing players to make a match seem plausible.
It’s worth noting that the D’backs are on Hamels’ no-trade list, meaning he could block a deal there, as Bill Shaikin of the Los Angeles Times tweets. We’ve heard chatter about the lefty’s preferences regarding other clubs, but it’s not clear whether he’d have any interest in a move to Arizona.
Didn’t see that comin’
I’m sure the Phillies would be interested in Touki Toussaint… Oh wait
Plot twist: they traded Arroyo with Toussaint so they can afford to pay for Cole Hamels. lol
Well that would likely be a catastrophic mistake for the DBacks to make.
I can’t imagine Hamels would love a trade to Arizona.
For…….. who exactly?
Bradley or Blair + Owings or Drury + other parts.
The Dbacks can take on his whole salary.
They could. But they really shouldn’t. They should be keeping their young prospects or acquiring more, not mortgaging the future to get to .500.
Outside of catcher, the entire lineup is nothing but good young cost controlled players. The one thing they are missing is a TOR arm.
Most of their top prospects are pitchers. It seems like a bad move to get them where they need to go.
Why mortgage the future to get to .500 when they can always just trade it away with salary dumps for no improvement whatsoever?
The phillies want to pay some of his contract. They want the best prospects they can get. Word was they would eat up close to half.
Living in this area, that information on contracts is 100% false. I mean, there’s a chance they absorb some money to better their haul, but there is absolutely no word that they “want” to or that they’ll come anywhere close to eating $40M.
@Theo2016 – Not sure where you heard that, but that is sounds most definitely false. Rebuilding teams fans don’t seem to grasp how team friendly Hamels deal is, relative to his age. I’ll explain this side of the take. Lets look at Jason Werth. Signed a monsterous contract years back that still have roughly 48 million on it. He underperformed and then started to pick it up…. but the point is, they way overpaid, and had to. The same that will happen with Grienke and Price. You will be looking at 27-30mil a year, for 7 years. The issue is, you’ll forfeit a top pick to the team that lost the player, and then on the tail end of the contract, youll be like the nats, who now are going to lose Zimmerman, among other – because of weths deal. So for the cubs, they’ll most likely lose Bryant, Swaber something, Soler, castro – one of them, because they had to pay premium price for Lester, then Price or Grienke. Same for the Dodgers, hang on to Seager and Urias as untouchables, but youll lose them to back end deals when these contracts go horribly wrong. Hamels contract is up at 35/36 – not 37/38 or higher like grienkes will be. Thats when it really hurts.
I wouldn’t mind giving Bradley, Owings and a couple lesser prospects. As a Dbacks fan, I don’t see Bradley being an ace.
Preller and Stewart are trying to make sure the Giants and Dodgers make the playoffs every year until entirety.
‘Hey, what about us!?’
– The Rockies.
I dont see Hamels agreeing to go there without a contract extension.
Tony (the Wimp) LaRussia destroyed the DBack and now wonders why there is no one in the cheap seats. He is making a splash but it is not real. Mostly to gain lost interest of the fans.
The Wimp is trying to hide from the people who want to express their angry speech at rule 7.3 which there is no clear interpretation for.
Wow that Reds guy has already jumped ship and became a DBacks fan
Cole Hamels is not going to wave No Trade List for D’backs, No Way, Never Happen, Tooth Fairy Stuff !
Agreed – don’t know why you are getting so many thbs down.
Landing in AZ minus the prospects needed to get him is really no improvement over staying in Phila
Arizona would be much better off signing Price or Cueto in the offseason. They obviously have the room to add payroll. Why give up the few prospects you have?
Because they’re only 7.5 games out of a wild card spot. Its wishful thinking, but lets face it, other than Phillies, the D’Backs are the worst front office in MLB.
Or maybe because they’d be on the hook for like $85m if they traded for Hamels rather than like $200m if they signed Cueto or Price…
Did you not read the part where they said the Dbacks cannot afford a free agent pitcher? Jeez…
Wondering if leaking out the Giants and now the Diamondbacks interest in Hamels is ploy by Andy MacPhail to get the Dodgers to turn loose the grip on one of LA’s elite prospects?
Doubtful. Friedman won’t make a bad deal. He’s not worried about the D-backs.
Hamels price tag is going to include at least one elite prospect from someone. Bank on it. Only with a *wink* is Amaro running this show. MacPhail will get a ton for it oe just hold on to him until the off season. There is more motivation for a potential contender to move when they have a window of opportunity than a team like the Phillies who are going no where. When Price and Cueto get deals that surpass Hamels’ contract elite prospects will find their way into the equation.
Holding on to Hamels until the off season is the worst possible thing other than getting a poor return on him now. Their are 4 aces on the market, plus about 10-15 different 2-3 starters.
But Hamels’ mid-range commitment is attractive – the hidden cost of the back end of these $200 million neighborhood ace pitcher deals pushes the age at the end of the contract to around 37-38 years old and effectively pushes the AAV in the prime years to the $40 million ballpark
Bravo.
O beg to differ. There are four pitchers who are goingto get more money this off season than is currently committed to Hamels. Grienke will get a lot more. Price will get more than Hamels. Those are the two legit aces. How sure are you that your team will land either one? A trade assures you of one thing, you get your man.
Who are the other lefties other than David Price? Scott Kazmir, the guy with arm issues. Cole Hamels pitches off the best left handed change up in baseball. He is going to age better than any pitcher pitching off of velocity, especially one that is a right hander.
Ervin Santana signed a 4 yrs/$55M contract last offseason. With inflation, that is probably what Mike Leake and Chen get this offseason. Ill take Hamels at 4 years 70 and not giving up my first round pick.
That’s actually crazy…. Why would I pay more for half a season less starts?
Probably an attempt – but would underscore how overmatched and amateurish the Phillies’ front office is.
The Snakes are not run well and they will not contend for a relatively long time – therefore Hamels will not agree to go there, especially since the pieces they deal for him will weaken them further.
Would be a major slap in the face if Ender Inciarte is in any way involved.
…why?
Bc the phillies had Inciarte and gave him away (like they did with Brandon Moss and Jason Grilli)
Because they had him in the rule 5 draft in 2013 and returned him after 2 days so they could activate Delmon Young from the DL.
Ruben Amaro negotiating with Dave Stewart…
I can think of Monty Python sketches that would likely be less surreal to watch…
Somehow I envision Amaro asking for Mark Grace, Luis Gonzalez, and Danny Bautista with Stewart countering that for all that Larry Anderson and Darren Daulton must be included as well.
So somehow Tony LaRussa can be called a wimp and Amaro and Stewart negotiating can be compared to a Python sketch, but my calling the Phils’ FO amateurish and overmatched for making it seem like AZ is interested when it’s inconceivable that Hamels would agree to languish there when he can pretty much deliver himself to a contender – that comment is somehow verboten
Well…I see where you’re coming from…but Andy macphail and Gillick are far from amatuer. I doubt Amaro is pulling too many strings. At some point knocking Philly has to hit a wall when their run and ring are considered. They held on too long…but they won. I’m not sure if perpetual churn is better
Yeahhh RAJ is going to at least want Bradley in that trade. Would you D’Backs fans do Bradley for Hamels straight up?
Amaro better not do that.
Okay so what else would need to be included?
A lot. Considering Bradley has been pretty bad the past 2 seasons and is coming back from a shoulder injury, a lot more would have to be included.
Aaron Blair, Braden Shipley and Ender Inciarte. The Phillies take on the rest of Hills contract.
Bradley is a nice player but it would be foolish for Philly to take him and nothing else. It would also be foolish for the D-backs to trade him.
Yes. And I’d be happy that’s all it took.
Wow, if the Diamondbacks are buyers…why are the Pads contemplating selling off all their recent acquisitions? They are both tied for third place. Cmon Pads, do something exciting…again.
Preller is looking REALLY bad right now for how he committed all this money to the Braves deal (Kimbrel and the Uptons), is dead in the water in the standings and meanwhile Matt Wisler is doing extremely well in ATL.
Grandal has also broken out in LA, though at least they are paying for Kemp to play in SD.
So Preller has to change course quickly if he wants to keep his job.
In terms of Hamels, it’s clear that his biggest value is with teams that want to get a jump on the winter market and save 3 back-end years and about $100 million. The teams solely looking for this year have already dealt for Cueto and Kazmir and will now be looking at Price, Latos and Samardzija.
And then there’s Shields, who probably can’t get dealt right now unless the Pads eat some salary to make up for the discounted year they just got of him. I think they’ll end up hanging on to Shields until the off season and try to give him away to the teams that missed out on Greinke, Price and JZ.
If the Dbacks do this move, it’s for the next 3 years, not this year. They’re still not ‘buyers’ in the normal deadline deals sense.
I’ve been under the impression that Hamels wants to go to a contender if he is traded. If so, that would rule Arizona out, and since he can block a trade there, I doubt anything would come of this rumor. Sports writers love to throw Hamels rumors around, though, and my guess is that is all this is…a rumor for rumor’s sake.
Chris Owings? Please. In case Jeff Todd hasn’t noticed, the Phillies’ current middle infielders, Cesar Hernandez nd Freddy Galvis, are doing just fine, thank yiu very much, and future star JP Crawford is waiting in the wings. The last thing they need right now is a 2b-ss batting .232.
I never remotely suggested he’d be part of a deal. I named him as a highly-regarded young player who could theoretically available.
And while I don’t know if the Phillies like him or not, I can assure you that Cesar Hernandez and Freddy Galvis are not going to keep them from adding a young middle infielder that they do like. Neither will Crawford: he’s just one middle IF piece, and anyway there’s risk with any prospect.
Only way I think they reject a middle infielder would be if the Cubs tried to center a deal around Castro or Baez…and that’s simply because of neither being maybe the best fit
hernandez is not a long term answer. now, not as a centerpiece but with the Phils lack of power, Baez at second base would be very interesting, but but you get the sensebut it
Baez is interesting, but I’d want a more sure thing as the center piece of a deal for Hamels
Yay another Cole Hamels update.
I would imagine the Rangers, Dodgers and Astros trying to go after Hamels without giving up their top guys (McCullers, Phillips, Urias, Seager, Mazara) and Amaro only wanting the elite guys and a deal not getting done. I’m a bit skeptical of the Astros, considering Singleton and Appel aren’t exactly the headliner type that I would want.
I assume if they want to keep Phillips and have Philly kick in money to buy out his option yearm its going to be Velasquez/Appel, and 5 of whoever the Phillies want in their system. The Astros are deep enough to handle that. Or there is a player to be named later, and that player is Alex Bregman.
The Phillies will either get a top 25 prospect or a package that fills up their top 10 prospects.
Astros can offer Appel and others.
the Astros moved the Taylor Swift concert …knowing they are signing Hamels.
They might have moved it out of a sudden development of good music taste as well.
terrible trade proposal attempt by me: Williams, Chi Chi, Ortiz and Martin for Hamels?
Wait, so the Rangers will only include Alfaro if the Phillies pay more, they won’t trade Maraza and they’re hesitant about Chi Chi? How do they expect to acquire Hamels?
Seriously, it’s becoming irritating that all major league clubs refuse to part with their prospects.
Rangers have a deep enough farm system that they can afford to keep their top 3 guys and still pull out a deal. Not a huge fan of Alfaro anyways, hes out for the season (I think) and doesn’t really hit for an average.
Also means they have a deep enough farm that they can afford to part with one of their top three. 😉
Umm, ok, so I just realized, after months of being confused, that Chi Chi Gonzalez is actually Rangers top prospect Alex Gonzalez. Not sure why he started going by Chi Chi all of a sudden, but I guess I get to wear the dunce cap today.
the Astros have the talent to trade. Vince V. Domingo Santana. Appel. Fisher. Aj Reed. And more….Hamels is headed to Houston
The Rangers, Dodgers, Cubs and BoSox also have very deep farm systems. Just because they have all of these guys doesn’t mean the Phillies love all of them. Appel isn’t exactly appealing as a headliner.
Yep it’s all about who is willing to budge
5 euro says amaro sits on his hands and doesnt move hammels
Diamondbacks and Mariners did make a Trade not a Blockbuster. JC Ramirez for Cash or future Considerations.
Williams/Brinson/Ortiz for Hamels plus cash would be a win for both sides.
AJ Reed, Appel and Santana for Hamels?
could happen. the Astros sold the hype of Nottingham and his year…Reed can go. Phillips is the #1 hitting prospect in the Astros system tho..
They havent held on to him that long for that deal
The thought of Houston being a buyer for Hamels after the Astros stocked the Phillies so well in 2008-10 is so hard to wrap my head around.
I know it makes sense but it’s still hard to believe if you take a step back and think about how it came full circle…
Wonder if the Yankees would give up Severino or Judge as a headliner if the Phillies would take Sabathia. Would make sense for both sides.
Yankees would need one of Severino or Judge to get Hamels without the Phillies taking a bad contract back.
CC is done, send him to the Bullpen to be the Blowout pitcher !
Sabathia has a NTC. Doubt he’d waive it to go to Philly.
Pirates aren’t getting him but on Jon Heyman Twitter feed inside Infor Carlos Gonzalez to Pirates.
No?
Stros baby
Wonder what the “big push” is. Got no interest in Mark Appel. Maybe for Domingo Santana, AJ Reed and Vincent Velasquez plus a low-level high potential prospect like Francis Martes.
As a Phillies fan, I’d be not thrilled, but accepting of that deal.
As a Phillies fan I’d be happy with that deal. Get 3 young players at or close to big league ready that show a lot of potential. They need capable bats, especially run producing middle of the order bats. Could go Franco, Reed and Santana 3-4-5 and potentially have a very potent middle of the order in a couple years. Can’t expect guys like Correa or Springer to be available at this stage.
i would think lots of teams have interest in Appel. him and Nola..nice young core. the “big Push” — Rangers are interested.
Oh, I’m sure tons of teams have interest in Appel, but hes not exactly a very good bet at this point to pan out. Only reason hes at a higher level than A ball is because of the hype and expectations around him.
But what has Appel shown in the minors that makes anyone think he’s going to be even a marginal big league SP?
Way to much. Appel, domingo Santana ,Vil”error” cough i meant villar. Will be a throw in
No way the Phillies take back 2 players they traded away and a broken SP prospect for their ace.
If the Astros got a load from phillies, they will take anything. Their Ace will be gone in FA anyways. So it wont be their “ACE” anymore. Lol plus i wouldnt want hamels.
Hamels isn’t a FA after this season. He’s signed for 3 more seasons with an option for 2019. That’s why the asking price is and should be high.
Why wouldn’t you want Hamels?
They’re not going to be able to get anything of value for Appel at this point. He’s getting hit around at every level and not showing the dominance that made him the #1 pick a few years ago.
I’m sure luhnow can make Appel sound delicious to GMs
No thanks… pass
It could all be posturing but it really seems like Cashman is going to stick to his guns about not giving up any of the top 4 prospects (Judge, Severino, Bird, or Mateo). That said, wonder if Nova, Mason Williams, and Clarkin could get something done.
Phils will need a catcher soon. Rupp is serviceable…if he can pick it up with the bat he would be terrific. Looks like the Rangers have the C prospect they’d be very interested in, however. Gotta find the next Chooch.
Andrew Knapp, their 2nd round pick in 2013 is likely the catcher of the future.