9:39 pm: Hamels felt shoulder pain during a recent simulated game, reports Jon Heyman of MLB Network (Twitter link).
9:17 pm: The Dodgers announced they’ve selected the contract of veteran reliever Neftalí Féliz. To create space on the 40-man roster, they placed left-hander Cole Hamels on the 60-day injured list. The move ends Hamels’ season before he could make an official appearance. Hamels recently suffered some form of arm injury, reports Bob Nightengale of USA Today (Twitter link).
Additionally, Los Angeles recalled right-handed pitching prospect Andre Jackson to make his major league debut. Jackson was selected to the 40-man roster over the offseason to keep him from being taken in the Rule 5 draft, so no corresponding move was needed in that regard. To open active roster space, Darien Núñez and Edwin Uceta were optioned to Triple-A Oklahoma City.
Hamels missed almost all of last season with the Braves dealing with triceps and shoulder issues. He stayed on the free agent market for the entire offseason and the first half of the 2021 campaign before conducting a showcase in mid-July. That led to a one-year, $1MM deal with the Dodgers two weeks ago, with the hope that Hamels could build up as a late-season rotation option for Los Angeles. Unfortunately, he’s now dealing with another injury that’ll keep him from taking the mound in 2021.
There’ll surely be forthcoming updates on Hamels’ specific diagnosis and outlook. It’s not clear whether this latest issue stands to affect his readiness for the 2022 campaign. The 37-year-old will again hit free agency at the end of the season, and he’ll surely need to conduct another showcase for teams if he’s able and decides to pursue opportunities this winter.
What is clear is that Hamels’ setback will remove another potential starting pitching option for the Dodgers down the stretch. Los Angeles trails the Giants by four games in the NL West, and they were already without Clayton Kershaw, Julio Urías, Danny Duffy and Tony Gonsolin due to injury (as well as Dustin May, who underwent Tommy John surgery in May). Kershaw, notably, did play catch today for the first time since being shut down due to forearm soreness (via Juan Toribio of MLB.com), although he’s still not expected back until September.
Féliz is back in the majors for the second time this season. The former All-Star appeared in two games for the Phillies in late June, his first big league action in four years. Féliz was tagged for four runs in an inning of work with Philadelphia before being let go. The 33-year-old latched on with the Dodgers on a minor league deal shortly thereafter.
The veteran righty has spent the past six weeks at Oklahoma City, pitching his way back to the bigs with a 3.38 ERA across 18 2/3 innings. That’s a continuation of the stellar work he logged at the minors’ highest level with the Phillies’ affiliate in Lehigh Valley. Between the two organizations, Féliz has a 2.45 ERA in Triple-A with a huge 38.8% strikeout rate and an average 9.7% walk percentage.
Jackson, meanwhile, is one of the better pitching prospects in the Dodgers’ system. He fell to the twelfth round in the 2017 draft after undergoing Tommy John surgery during his final season at the University of Utah, where he spent more time as an outfielder than he did on the mound. The righty made his professional debut the following year and struggled with his control, but he had a breakout 2019 season split between two levels of A-ball.
Each of Baseball America, Keith Law of the Athletic and Eric Longenhagen of FanGraphs slotted Jackson among the Dodgers’ top fifteen minor leaguers either before or during the 2021 season. Evaluators praise his four-pitch mix and athleticism, with a general expectation he’ll continue to improve due to his relative lack of experience as a pitcher.
The 24-year-old has spent most of the year with Double-A Tulsa, pitching to 3.27 ERA across 63 1/3 innings. Jackson punched out a strong 29.6% of opponents while walking a career-low 7.9% of batters faced to earn his first big league call.
Poor guy. This ends his season and maybe his career. At least somebody’s making a million bucks to do nothing.
Bauer is costing them more.
If the Dodgers work some legal magic, Bauer may end up costing them a lot less than what they signed him for. And these new developments should only help their case.
Not sure how much legal magic they’ll really need. Do they have to pay a guy that’s in jail? For some reason I highly doubt it will end at two women for Bauer. I can see into the future and in his future I see him holding on to the soap for dear life.
Felipe Vasquez raped a kid and is still getting paid by the Pirates while he sits in prison. That would have to be some legal magic.
I don’t say this to defend Bauer at all (the dude is a scumbag), but I doubt he’s going to jail. My understanding is that this lady is looking for a 5-year restraining order. It would seem, and I could be wrong on this, that Bauer would need to undergo a completely different hearing for any possible sentencing that could include incarceration.
Could the Dodgers realistically void his contract because someone filed a restraining order against him? I think that would be a tough case to make, unfortunately.
They won’t need to void his contract. The Dodgers will not pay him while he is serving a suspension under the domestic violence policy, and it’s going to be a long one. The real action is not in court but what is going on behind closed doors at the commissioner’s office. I suspect the commissioner will act not long after the hearings on the restraining order are completed.
I think you are right. This current situation has nothing to do with the pending investigation by the Pasadena police, besides perhaps being able to be used in a potential case down the line(I really don’t know).
It seems highly unlikely the dodgers could void the contract just because he’s on leave. I don’t know how long a person who is accused but not charged can be kept on leave, plus he did pitch games and add value to the dodgers this year already so that will surely complicate the attempts to void the contract
The administrative leave can be extended by mutual agreement of MLB and the MLBPA. I don’t believe it hits a limit so long both parties agree to it, which so far they have. But the purpose of the policy is to take action on violations so pressure on the commissioner to make a decision is going to grow. The team doesn’t want this hanging over them for the rest of the season and probably neither do the players. My guess is the commissioner acts next week. The wildcard will be whether Bauer appeals. So far no other player has, but he could be the first.
Knowing what we know about Bauer, if he’s suspended without pay, he’ll absolutely appeal the suspension.
I hope that Bauer just gets cut loose and never plays again, but I don’t think it’s going to be simple for the Dodgers to simply not pay him.
The way the policy has been implemented until now, the commissioner, the union, and the player come to a suspension length that the player accepts along with making a statement accepting responsibility for his behavior and a pledge to be better person in the future. Maybe that’s where they are now, hard to say. It would be utterly stupid for Bauer to not do what every player before him has done and at least attempted to rehabilitate his career, but then again, look at how he got where he is now. So all bets are off where Bauer is concerned.
JohnJason….I suspect that there’s be a clause in the contract regarding conduct. I could be way off on that idea.
Or *JohJaso*
Probably the standard “morals clause” but it would not have to be invoked for a player on the Restricted List, which where he’d go with a suspension, without pay. He could appeal a suspension to an arbitration panel.
I wish I could make a million dollars off of name recognition
Start an only fans page
Well that depth signing didn’t last long….hopefully he can find a minor league deal on the market this winter and return next year. Hope you get well soon!
Hi Dodgers, this is the Braves smiling & winking saying “I told you so”
I didn’t know Neftali was still playing.
he played with Philadelphia back in June
Gave up a grand slam to Nick Castellanos in his first inning.
I thought he was coaching Little League.
Didn’t he change his name and age?
That escalated quickly
Well who could’ve seen this coming?
AA & the Braves? Ooops, did we forget to warn you, our bad
Lmao wut
Ha, the Dodgers pissed away $1 million on a guy who was cooked. Why can’t I find someone to piss away a $1 million on me? Maybe I should call the Dodgers.
its pro-rated
No it’s not. Hamels wouldn’t play for a pro rated $1m for two months.
as opposed to not at all?
He’s a guy that’s made about $200m in his career. He probably makes 5-10m in interest income a year so a pro rated $1m at this point in the season is about 300-350k. That’s not enough to get a guy like him to play. So yes, the alternative is to not play at all because everyone has a price to get off the couch and work.
Do you have any idea what interest rates are right now? Even if he lived off endorsements and plowed his entire $200 career MLB earnings into money market, he’d be lucky to get $200k per year.
The Dow jones is up from about 27k to 35k the past twelve months and up from 18k five years ago. Obviously he isn’t putting his money in a savings account. The term interest income was used to describe his money making money.
According to this site on Aug 4th, Hamels was making a $1 Million dollar base salary (that isn’t pro-rated folks), with a $200,000 bonus for every start made down the stretch.
The guy gave away a $9mil mansion to a charity 4 years ago.. he doesn’t need the money. Don’t know if it was prorated or not, but he clearly didn’t need the money, he must want to pitch again.
mlb.com/news/rangers-cole-hamels-donates-house-to-…
It’s not pro-rated. It’s a $1 million guarantee plus an extra $200k per start. Here’s the Nightengale tweet as a source:
twitter.com/BNightengale/status/142295180399433728…
Everywhere I’ve seen just said it was a 1 million base salary and noted that he’d make a bonus of 200K per start (hah). But nowhere on any sites I could find, did it mention it being pro rated. My guess is that 1 million was the amount he was to make from the point of signing to the end of the year.
You’re correct. The Nightengale tweet cited in the article says it’s a ‘guaranteed $1 million’.
What are you skills that will make others lots of money?
Because you don’t have anything worth pissing away a million on
Hamels is learning the “art” of stealing money at the end of his career. 19mil from braves/Dodgers for 1 Start
Did he even make one start?
He did last year for the Braves. Just one
Yes, he made 1 start in 2020. He threw 3.1 IP and gave up 3 ER.
That’s what free agency is all about, isn’t it?
Ain’t nothin’ free ’bout Free Agency
Steve Nebraska…Actually there is. While you comment was partly in jest, individuals having the choice to seek their own employment situation is a big part of the free agency concept.
@13 Morgs
I thought he was being paid 200 G’s per game
He pitched ‘zero’ games.
He doesn’t even get per diem money for the Jack in the Box
it’s a good gig if you can get it
Justin Verlander has entered the chat…
Helluva racket. Cole can do this until he’s 50.
bruhh dang. poor Cole Hamels. wash wishing he could come back but this is most likely the end of his career
Why not just release him then?
Still have to pay him. What’s the point?
I think that’s standard practice. The Dodgers will have insight into his recovery and perhaps Hamels might give them a discount to resign when he’s healthy again.
Again? Your funny. Baseball players and MLB have become nothing more than Hustlers and Con Men. Should be a standing rule, if you sign with a certain amount of teams and provide value to none of them they should be able to cut ties with you. Entitlement is running rampant in major sports.
We have a corporate boot-licker here.
Is it too late for the Dodgers to file a stop-payment on that check?
Wow. Time to hang up the cleats. If he insists on trying again in 2022, all he’ll get is a minor league contract.
Cole Hamels, du schwindler
Sad ending to a great career. That’s all she wrote for Hamels.
Hamels will still provide more value to the Dodgers, than Arrieta to the Padres.
That was quick
Yep he is done sad to say
Well, that was an easy $1M, or whatever the guaranteed portion of the contract calls for.
Hopefully this is not his last stand and he’s back in 2022 pitching for some MLB team.
I hope your wrong. Hes washed out and provides no value. Just a leech for money now it would seem. Atleast Roy Halladay had the smarts to walk away.
Why doesn’t this surprise me? He had a good career.
Cole Axford…
I think Mr. Hamels should give the Dodgers their million back. What a joke for him to fleece the Dodgers.
I’m sure medicals took place prior so that’s on the Dodgers for the risk.
When the Phils give him a raise on his league minimum salary while producing 3-4 WAR a season then we can talk about a refund
Who knows. Maybe the MLBPA will agree to that if in turn players can declare themselves free agents at any point during their arbitration years. Juan Soto tells the Nats you’re significantly underpaying me, so I’m taking my act on the road to the highest bidder.
Back to reality for you
Hamles is washed. Time to hang em up super chief
Cole Hamels is a piece of crap and a thief. That’s $20 million he’s stolen in the last two seasons from the Braves and Dodgers combined. I cannot believe anyone would ever sign him again.
We all have reasonable reason to believe that LA scrutinized the medicals before signing him…
Injuries happen. He will be signed again if he decides to keep trying to play. Also, really accurate hot take, you’re an idiot.
I don’t think he did. It’s doubtful that he truly could pitch on the biggest stage in MLB (returning champs), and get a shot at retiring a WS champ, but would rather take it easy.
I do believe (just as what happened with relievers) this rotation-building from injured SP fliers by competing teams will significantly slow from this point forward given several have been re-injured. This will hurt chances/money/commitments for future players in similar positions. Kluber is in that group…and he just came off a no-hit outing. Yankees desperately need his arm too.
How is he a thief? Did he extort his contracts? Or did teams willingly gamble large amounts of money on him based on his past success?
In the time I type this, the Dodgers just made a million dollars. They’ll be okay.
Yes. He’s a piece of crap…even though it’s up to the Braves and Dodgers to do their due diligence in terms of health checks, Give me a break. It’s just bad luck. I feel bad for the Braves last year, but the Dodgers saw all the red flags and took a risk that didn’t pay off.
@VonPurpleHayes you’re absolutely right, the Dodgers should have known better. Hell when they signed him I literally came on here and commented that “I guess the Dodgers are looking to fill their IL”. If most of us as fans knew this guy was gonna hit the IL quickly how didn’t they? Signing this guy this late in the season was silly and seems rather desperate to me. I would have rather taken a look at the farm system over Hamels. The guy calling Hamels a piece of crap is a little confused obviously as Cole’s only looking at it from the point of view that he wants to play I highly doubt he went into this thinking he was gonna fleece anyone.
dang, that sucks. I was hoping he’d have another good year or two. makes the Hall unlikely.
Cole Hamels will still get inducted to the Lakewood Blue Claws Hall of Fame for what he was able to accomplish as a 19 year old, but you really can’t be meaning Cooperstown, right?
Hammels pulling his best mark prior imitation
Sigh. What a crummy way for such a great career to end.
(Yes, I’m assuming his career is substantively over.)
That was quick!
Darién has an accent in Spanish. Feliz does not.
Time to call it a career. Zero chance he gets anything better than a MiLB contract at this point and having lost basically 2 seasons, it’s over.
Depending on the injury he could get a spring training invite with an opt out if not on the opening day roster. But other wise yeah, time to call it a career and hope for a scouting, front office, or a minor league coaching job if he wants to remain in baseball.
Wow, surprised the Mets didn’t sign him with this outcome.
And I’m a Mets fan, so it’s not a dig at them so much as a reflection on their injuries this season.
Dodger fans, welcome to how every Angels signing goes.
I bet Cole knew this all along.
I bet you don’t know that.
Some really classy comments here.
I’m surprised people believe he would rather check out than pitch for a WS-contending-team. I don’t see him choosing IL, AAA recovery games and separation from his team just to “take LAD for a million bucks.” It goes against the very nature of competitive athletes.
Duffy and Hamels may never throw a pitch for the Dodgers.. what could of been
When are people gonna learn….
Bud, retire! You made your money
MLB NEEDS to get rid of guaranteed contracts
Why? What do you care?
Ted
Why? What do you care?
=============================
For some reason, that I cannot possibly fathom, folks in here get worked up about either A) billionaire owners occasionally taking a beating, or B) collectively billionaire players occasionally taking a beating.
For EVERYONE in here. I pay $12 for a beer at Yankee Stadium. After I pay that $12, it is no longer mine. I don’t care whether the owners/players split it 50/50, 52/48, 48/52.
Seriously, could someone explain to me why fans feel the need to take sides?
If you work, how would you feel if you got hurt on the job and they fired you? That’s what you’re suggesting here, only to you it’s apparently okay because they’re millionaire athletes, I guess. As Ted said, why do you care? Your take is awful.
Yeah it’s time to go. Juice ain’t worth the squeeze.
Caveat emptor! Dodgers gambled $1M on a 37-year-old, broken pitcher — and lost.
Making the Cardinals look smart trading for Lester and Happ… two lefties not broken down yet old.
That sucks.
I warned everyone about Hamels and some of the crazy Phils fan wanted to sign him because he was good in 2008 what idiots.I have no clue what the Dodgers were thinking
this is more like something the Mutts would do.
Referring to the Mets all the time as the Mutts just makes you sound like a tool
I may sound like one but you are a TOOL Mutt Fan Loser
Hang em up Cole
$1 million for 12 days work – not bad. Dodgers are suckers of the month of August!
It seems that after every game, multiple players add to the IL on every team.
I wonder if anyone knows the total number of players on the IL ?
Was the ink even dry on the contract?
It was still a smart signing. The Dodgers are in their window and it only cost a small amount of money to add depth. Just bad luck for they and the player.
I don’t get the concern. For the LAD, their current rotation is Scherzer, Buehler, Price, and a couple of guys I never heard of. And you know Buehler is due for a day off.
It was hope for 3-4 semi-competitive outings from Hamels, or what? $1M for the LAD is maybe .004 of their overall payroll.
They’re trying to catch the Giants. Buehler, Scherzer and Urias are great. But this year’s Price is still an unknown. And they’re trying to preserve Urias. Never ideal to go bullpen game once every five games. Gonsolin, Kershaw and Duffy hurt with latter 2 potentially out for entire season. Who knows? They’re hoping Kershaw and Duffy are ready for the playoffs but won’t be much of a playoff if they lose the wild card game. Thus, they need starting pitching help now.
He should be signed by the Cardinals and join the old man rotation!!
No surprise there
Preller Outcome.
Just hang ’em up Cole.
Whaaaaaaa???
James Paxton thinks Cole is fragile
Jackson seems like an interesting prospect. interested to see what he can do.
ok thanks for sharing??
August and September is a time for bringing up interesting prospects for teams that are out of contention. For teams in contention, it’s desperation.
These pitching acquisitions have the same feel as watching someone play blackjack against a dealer that can’t lose and the player keeps chasing losing hand after losing hand. Time to step away from the table and be happy you didn’t piss it all away.
Now, if Duffy never throws a pitch for the Dodgers, were Hamels and Duffy still good pickups?
Write your theories here: __________
It largely depends on what is given up as the PTBNL for Duffy. But I look at it this way: unless there’s evidence that the Dodgers ignored medical reports, you can’t fault them for going after Hamels. They needed pitching, and he was available.
Aside from giving up some cash, the Dodgers are in the same spot they were 10 days ago. So Hamels doesn’t really hurt them.
Danny Duffy is TBD. I doubt the Royals are getting much in return for him, so I’d imagine the cost is negligible.
Ultimately, the Dodgers still need pitching depth. But they can probably find that in other places to finish out the season.
No matter what they gave up, as you say, they needed the pitching. Job One was finding it. They can no longer trade, so anything else they find will be waiver claims, and most of them are junk castoffs from other teams.
That’s why I don’t fault either move for LA. They worked to get pitching, and so far one of these moves failed to work out for them. It happens.
Anyone treating this move like it was a huge deal for the Dodgers is certainly exaggerating.
You mean Shane Greene? Not a big move at all, just more meat for the grinder, which is the problem. Hamels isn’t the only move that didn’t work out. Duffy at best will be available for the last two weeks of the season and very possibly not at all. And of the long list of castoff relievers they’ve tried this year, how many of them worked out?
Folks tend to look at results, later in the season, to determine whether or not pickups earlier in the season made sense. To some extent, it makes sense.
But I prefer to look at the circumstances at the time of the acquisition. If Hamels had a torn rotator cuff, and LAD ignored it (which is unlikely), then yeah, stupid move.
OTOH, if he was throwing 90, and looked okay, and tore some ratcheting up to 92, that just goes under the heading of ‘nothing is guaranteed’.
Probably doped up his arm for the tryout then threw one inning and the arm gave way
Wow. I blinked and it’s over.
Another great signing for the dodgers…..
Taking a guess, I have to assume they sign Randy Wolf next
With the great farm system the Dodgers have (um, had), I hate to see some of their recent decisions. Do they really need to collect all of the formerly good/great pitchers?
They’ve missed one. Felix Hernandez might still be available.
They’ve had the most success with acquisitions of mostly-unknown young players that teams were giving up on – not with their stars. Who carries the team: Price, Betts, and Bauers (ouch!), or Turner, Muncy, and Taylor?
I met Hamels a few years ago in a hotel lobby as he was leaning on his golf clubs. He is not a nice guy. At all. He fooled the Dodgers. Easy million.