Cole Hamels

Quick Hits: Uniform Employee Contracts, Hamels, Maddon

By Nick Deeds | November 1, 2023 at 12:19pm CDT

Major League Baseball is doing away with uniform employee contracts, according to a report from Evan Drellich of The Athletic. Previously, the league required all employment agreements with managers, coaches, salaried scouts and trainers to utilize the same standardized language across all 30 teams. Clubs are now free to draft their own individual employment contracts for employees, opening the door to differences in contract language between teams, and employees will be subject to team-specific contract terms upon the expiration of their current deals. The impetus for the change, according to Drellich, appears to be shielding the league from liability regarding employment matters. Drellich also suggests that the change could help the league retain its antitrust exemption, which has come under fire on occasion in recent years, should MLB face employment issues in the future.

Perhaps the most well-known aspect of the uniform employee contracts to this point is a tampering clause that stops club employees from speaking to other teams while they’re under contract without permission from their club. A notable example of the tampering clause played out this past month, ahead of the expiration of Brewers manager’s Craig Counsell contract today. Though Counsell wasn’t under contract for the 2024 campaign, his contract with the Brewers ran through October 31, meaning that clubs interested in Counsell’s services such as the Mets and Guardians could not interview Counsell until the Brewers granted them permission to do so.

That being said, the move away from uniform employee contracts doesn’t necessarily portend the end of the tampering clause, or any other particular clause in the contract itself. It’s entirely possible that clubs could continue to offer employees roughly similar contracts going forward; in fact, Drellich suggests that the league’s antitrust exemption could allow teams to keep “some elements of the contracts effectively identical.” That reality has left the change to be met with mixed responses. Drellich cited one current scout who has concerns that clubs will take the opportunity to alter contract language in a way that works against employees, though he noted that others hope the departure from uniform contracts will spur competition between the major league clubs and create more favorable terms for employees in the future.

More notes from around the league…

Longtime big league lefty Cole Hamels retired from professional play back in August after 15 seasons in the majors and an additional three seasons of attempting to rehab from shoulder issues and make a comeback. Hamels, 40 in December, recently spoke to Matt Breen of the Philadelphia Inquirer about his hope to return to the game, in another capacity, sometime in the near future. The first order of business appears to be a return to Philadelphia, where the Phillies plan to honor Hamels sometime next season. Beyond that, Breen notes that Hamels hopes he can find an off-the-field role somewhere in the game akin to that of the one Chase Utley once held with the Dodgers, acting as a liaison between the front office and players in the clubhouse.
The league has seen plenty of managerial churn both this offseason (with six teams either looking for a new manager or already employing a new manager, with a seventh on the table if Counsell departs Milwaukee) and in the past, but John Romano of the Tampa Bay Times relays that no team has contacted former Rays, Cubs, and Angels manager Joe Maddon regarding a potential managerial vacancy. Romano adds that lack of interest extends to last offseason, despite reports at the time of possible interest in Maddon from the White Sox regarding their managerial vacancy, which was ultimately filled by Pedro Grifol. Since departing the Angels, Maddon has been particularly critical of the implementation of analytics by many front offices in recent years, and Romano suggests that this lack of interest in the three-time Manager of the Year who reached the World Series with the Rays in 2008 before winning it with the Cubs in 2016 could stem from that criticism.

Cole Hamels Retires

By Steve Adams and Anthony Franco | August 4, 2023 at 10:59pm CDT

The Padres announced Friday that veteran left-hander Cole Hamels, who’d signed a minor league deal in hopes of working his way back to the Majors in San Diego, has ended that comeback bid and retired.

Hamels, 39, was drafted by the Phillies with the No. 17 overall pick out of San Diego’s Rancho Bernardo High School back in 2002. By the time he’d wrapped up his first professional season — with 101 innings of 1.34 ERA ball — he’d vaulted up prospect rankings, checking in as the game’s No. 17 farmhand on Baseball America’s top-100.

While many first-round picks and top prospects fail to live up to those billings, Hamels shattered expectations and went on to become one of the generation’s finest pitchers. Despite being drafted out of high school, he reached the Majors less than three years after his selection, debuting with five shutout innings against the Reds in May 2006. Hamels posted a modest 4.08 ERA in 132 1/3 innings as a rookie but broke out with an All-Star season that saw him finish sixth in NL Cy Young voting the following year.

From 2006-15, Hamels starred for the Phillies. He and teammates Chase Utley, Ryan Howard and Jimmy Rollins became synonymous with the Phillies organization during their halcyon days, serving as the foundation that ultimately brought a World Series title to the city in 2008. Hamels was sensational that season, firing 227 1/3 innings of 3.09 ERA ball, but he saved his best work for the postseason. On the game’s biggest stage, Hamels pitched 35 innings with a 1.80 ERA, compiling a 4-0 record and taking home MVP honors in both the National League Championship Series and in the World Series.

Hamels helped the Phils back to the postseason in each of the following three years. They repeated as NL champs in 2009 before dropping the World Series to the Yankees. Hamels had a relative down season in ’09 but rebounded to fire 208 2/3 frames of 3.06 ERA ball the next year. He secured his second All-Star nod and a fifth-place Cy Young finish with a 2.79 ERA over 216 frames in 2011.

The Phillies’ run of team success came to a close after that season. Philadelphia wouldn’t make the playoffs again until last year’s club took home another pennant. The down stretch of Philadelphia baseball was no fault of Hamels. He reached 30 starts each season from 2012-14 and posted an ERA below 3.60 in every year. Hamels secured another All-Star nod in 2012 and down-ballot Cy Young votes in two of those three years.

Midway through the 2012 campaign, the Phils signed him to a $144MM contract extension. While Hamels more than lived up to that investment, the team’s descent into a rebuild eventually led them to put him on the trade market. At the 2015 deadline, Philadelphia sent Hamels to Texas for a prospect package including Jorge Alfaro, Nick Williams and Jerad Eickhoff.

The young talent never really panned out for the Phils, but Hamels kept producing in Texas. He’d throw 546 2/3 frames of 3.30 ERA ball as a Ranger, securing a fourth All-Star nod in 2016 and helping Texas to a pair of playoff berths. At the 2018 deadline, a then-rebuilding Texas club shipped him to the Cubs. Hamels provided Chicago with 12 starts of 2.36 ERA ball for the stretch run. The Cubs brought him back on a $20MM club option; he’d pitch to a 3.81 ERA over 27 starts the following season.

Hamels signed with the Braves over the 2019-20 offseason. Shoulder injuries limited him to one 3 1/3 inning appearance during the shortened schedule — which would unfortunately prove his final MLB outing. Shoulder injuries have derailed subsequent comeback attempts with the Dodgers and San Diego over the last three years.

While injuries robbed Hamels of his final couple seasons, he was one of the sport’s most durable and effective pitchers for well over a decade. The southpaw had 10 years in which he reached at least 190 innings, including eight seasons of 200+ frames. Only Justin Verlander logged a higher workload between 2006-19. Hamels posted a sub-4.00 ERA in 11 of his 14 seasons (excluding his one-start 2020), a remarkable stretch of consistency.

All told, Hamels threw just under 2700 innings while allowing 3.43 earned runs per nine. He won 163 games, struck out 2560 hitters and threw 17 complete games. He had a 3.41 ERA over 100 1/3 career postseason frames — highlighted by the aforementioned 2008 run to a title and World Series MVP. MLBTR congratulates Hamels on a fantastic career and wishes him the best in retirement.

Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.

NL Notes: Strahm, Mendick, Hamels, Panik

By Nick Deeds | March 26, 2023 at 10:40pm CDT

With Ranger Suarez unlikely to be ready for the first turn through the rotation this season, Phillies manager Rob Thomson announced to reporters, including Alex Coffey of The Philadelphia Inquirer, that left-hander Matt Strahm would start the fifth game of the season for Philadelphia, joining Aaron Nola, Zack Wheeler, Taijuan Walker and Bailey Falter in the rotation while Suarez is on the shelf.

Strahm signed with the Phillies as a reliever this offseason but has 25 career starts in the big leagues under his belt as well. That being said, his 5.08 career ERA in 108 innings of work as a starter pales in comparison to his 3.11 ERA in 196 2/3 relief innings. That said, Strahm nonetheless represents a serviceable option to fill in for Suarez in the short-term, particularly seeing as Thomson notes he will likely be limited to between 65 and 70 pitches in his first start, as he is not fully stretched out yet. That low pitch count could help him avoid facing batters for a third time, a challenge he has only faced in 75 plate appearances in his career to this point.

NL West Notes: Rockies, Conforto, Padres

By Steve Adams | March 3, 2023 at 10:54am CDT

As the Rockies brace for potentially unwelcome news on both second baseman Brendan Rodgers and lefty Lucas Gilbreath, they’re perhaps already giving fans a preview of one contingency plan. With Rodgers out indefinitely and possibly facing season-ending surgery, Colorado is deploying third baseman Ryan McMahon at second base today and giving former top prospect Elehuris Montero the start at third base. This is obviously just one permutation that the lineup could take if Rodgers is indeed lost for the season, as there are alternate options at both third base (Kris Bryant, Nolan Jones) and at second base (Alan Trejo). Non-roster invitee Harold Castro can play both spots (though defensive metrics view his glovework at both positions in a negative light). Rodgers was going for a second opinion on his shoulder yesterday after reportedly receiving an initial recommendation of surgery. The Rox should have further updates on his status before long.

NL Notes: Song, Lee, Hamels

By Darragh McDonald | February 23, 2023 at 5:32pm CDT

The Phillies and right-hander Noah Song are going to attempt something unprecedented, as he is now in camp after spending the past three years in the Navy. Both Song and Phillies president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski spoke to reporters about the unusual situation today, including Alex Coffey of The Philadelphia Inquirer.

“The reality is it’s a gamble,” Dombroski said of taking Song from the Red Sox in November’s Rule 5 draft. “That’s what it is. I do not know when he picks up a ball and he starts throwing off the mound and puts something into it, once his arm is in good enough shape, I don’t know if he’s going throw 85 or 95. But we think it’s worth the risk.”

Dombrowski is certainly familiar with Song’s past pedigree as a prospect, since he was with the Sox when Song was drafted. Some evaluators considered the youngster to be a first-round talent at that time, but Boston was able to take him in the fourth because clubs were concerned about his commitment to the military. Dombrowski said that taking the gamble this winter was worth it, even though Song was still committed to the Navy at the time, since he could be a “top-of-the-rotation type pitcher” or a “star major leaguer,” the type of player that’s not usually available in the draft. “For us, the [Rule 5] draft price is $100,000, and if we return him [to the Red Sox], it’s $50,000, so that’s not much of a risk, financially,” Dombrowski said. “He’s not counted on our roster, so we haven’t even lost a player to put him on the 40-man roster. We thought it was worth the gamble with the high upside that he could bring.”

For now, the gamble has paid off, in the sense that Song has been transferred from active duty to the reserves. That’s allowed him to pursue baseball but it doesn’t seem he’s completely without limits, as Coffey relays that his transfer to reserve status means he’ll be putting in 12 years of part-time duty instead of six years of full-time. As part of that part-time duty, he’ll still have to serve one weekend per month and two full weeks per year. The logistics of how that will play out during the season remain to be seen.

Song last pitched professionally in High-A in 2019 and will now have to try to get back on track quickly. As a Rule 5 draftee, he has to stick on an active roster all season long or else be put on waivers and offered back to the Sox if he clears. “It felt rough,” Song said of his first bullpen since the news of his transfer. “It felt like I was trying to walk again. Trying to learn new things. But as far as expectations go, just trying to manage expectations, really. I don’t really know what my future or ceiling might be. But just trying to figure out what it is, what the new one is, I guess.”

Song’s journey has already been a unique one and his next stage will be one of the more fascinating spring stories to watch.

Some other notes from the Senior Circuit…

Nationals left-hander Evan Lee will be treated strictly as a reliever this spring, manager Dave Martinez tells Mark Zuckerman of MASNsports.com. Lee, 26 in June, came up primarily as a starter in his time in the minors, including a 2021 season where he pitched 77 innings in High-A with a 4.32 ERA, 31.4% strikeout rate, 9.7% walk rate and 47.8% ground ball rate. He was added to the club’s 40-man in November of that year to protect him from being selected in the Rule 5 draft. He was able to make his MLB debut in June of last year, putting up a 4.15 ERA over four appearances, but he then went to the injured list with a flexor strain. He made some minor league appearances on a rehab assignment as the season was winding down but didn’t return to the majors and was outrighted off the roster in November. The Nats only have four lefties on their 40-man, with Patrick Corbin and MacKenzie Gore slated to the in the rotation, while Matt Cronin and Jose Ferrer have yet to reach the majors. Perhaps there is a path for Lee to get back to the big leagues but he’ll be competing with non-roster invitees like Sean Doolittle and Anthony Banda.
The Padres brought veteran lefty Cole Hamels aboard on a minor league deal recently but he won’t factor into their starting pitching depth immediately. Kevin Acee of The San Diego Union-Tribune reports that the southpaw won’t pitch in games until extended Spring Training and will then head to the minors. If he progresses to game readiness and isn’t given a spot on the big league roster, he has monthly opportunities to opt-out of the contract. Hamels missed the past two seasons primarily due to shoulder injuries, in addition to other ailments. He also only made a single start in 2020. Prior to that, however, he was one of the best pitchers in the league for over a decade. “As an athlete, we know we can compete and we’ve done it for a long time,” he tells Acee. “It’s just a matter of (whether) your body will allow you to do it. I think that’s the part that we all battle as our careers kind of come towards those ending points. The body and will you be able to get out there and will you be able to get results? Will you be able to recover? And that’s where we’re at in this stage, and that’s what I’m trying to do.”

Padres, Cole Hamels In Agreement On Minor League Deal

By Darragh McDonald | February 16, 2023 at 10:18pm CDT

10:18pm: Hamels’ deal would contain a $2MM base salary if he cracks the MLB roster, reports Bernie Wilson of the Associated Press.

3:20pm: The Padres and left-hander Cole Hamels are in agreement on a minor league deal, reports Robert Murray of FanSided. Presumably, Hamels will receive an invitation to major league Spring Training once the deal is finalized. The southpaw is represented by John Boggs & Associates.

Hamels, 39, is a wild card at this point in his career. He spent many years as one of the most reliable and consistent hurlers in the big leagues but has barely pitched at all over the past three seasons. From 2006 through 2019, he logged just shy of 2,700 innings with a 3.42 ERA in that time. He pitched at least 132 frames in all 14 of those campaigns and topped 180 in 11 of them. His ERA was never higher than 4.32 in any individual season and he kept that mark under 4.00 in all but three of those years. He also pitched in the postseason in eight of those campaigns, winning NLCS and World Series MVP honors in 2008 with the world champion Phillies.

But as mentioned, the story has been flipped in recent years. Hamels signed a one-year, $18MM deal with Atlanta for 2020 but was slowed by shoulder irritation as the start of the season neared. The pandemic ended up putting everything on pause, giving him time to recuperate. Once things ramped up again, however, he was dealing with triceps tendinitis. He came off the injured list in September and made one start, but went right back on the IL after that.

He didn’t sign with anyone in the subsequent offseason, eventually holding a showcase in July of 2021 to demonstrate his health to interested clubs. The Dodgers signed him at that point but he was ruled out for the season just a couple of weeks later with his shoulder pain returning. He didn’t pitch at all in 2022, recently telling the Associated Press that he underwent three surgeries in the past year, on his left shoulder, right knee and left foot. Nonetheless, he still had his sights set on a comeback and held a showcase for scouts last month. The Padres were connected to him and Michael Wacha in rumors a few days ago and have now added both pitchers to their staff.

It’s tough to know what to expect from Hamels at this point. That single start in 2020 is his only appearance over the past three years and he’s been under the knife quite a bit since then. But since this is just a minor league deal, there’s no real risk for the Padres. They can bring him into camp and see if Hamels is capable of getting back on track at all.

Up until recently, the club had a fairly lopsided rotation. Joe Musgrove, Yu Darvish and Blake Snell provided them with a strong front three but there were question marks behind them. The frontrunners for the backend spots in the rotation were Nick Martinez and Seth Lugo, both of whom are not really established as starters. Martinez had better results out of the bullpen last year while Lugo hasn’t really been a starter since 2017. The signing of Wacha this week could help to firm up the back of the rotation since he put up a 3.32 ERA with the Red Sox last year.

Hamels will be trying to prove himself healthy and force his way into that mix. If either Lugo or Martinez struggle in their attempts to secure rotation jobs, the Padres will need other options on hand. And there are also the inevitable pitcher injuries to consider. They have other options on the roster, such as Adrián Morejón, Jay Groome, Brent Honeywell Jr., Reiss Knehr, Ryan Weathers and Pedro Avila, but if Hamels looks anything like his old self, he could leapfrog all of those guys. If he does so, he’ll be pitching for his hometown team, having been born and raised in the San Diego area.

Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.

Padres Showing Interest In Michael Wacha

By Anthony Franco | February 13, 2023 at 6:03pm CDT

The Padres have recently checked in with righty Michael Wacha, reports Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union-Tribune. San Diego has also shown recent interest in veteran southpaw Cole Hamels as part of his comeback effort, according to Acee.

Those hurlers are in very different spots of their careers. Wacha is the best remaining free agent starting pitcher and the only hurler who made MLBTR’s top 50 free agents at the start of the offseason who is still unsigned. The 31-year-old is coming off a solid season for the Red Sox, making good on a $7MM free agent deal to turn in a 3.32 ERA across 23 starts and 127 1/3 innings.

Wacha’s camp apparently entered free agency with a fairly lofty goal on the heels of that showing. USA Today’s Bob Nightengale reported last month his camp had been seeking around $30MM over two seasons. There hasn’t seemed to be sufficient interest from the market to push prices to that level, and Acee suggests Wacha’s asking price has lowered as the regular season draws nearer.

On the surface, a $15MM average annual value over two years isn’t an outlandish ask for a pitcher who posted such a strong ERA during his platform year. However, there are a handful of other indicators that raise questions about Wacha’s ability to sustain upper mid-rotation production. The 2022 season was the first in four years in which the veteran hurler allowed fewer than four earned runs per nine innings and came on the heels of consecutive campaigns with an ERA above 5.00. Wacha’s peripherals weren’t dramatically different from those of his prior showings.

Last year’s 20.2% strikeout rate was his lowest since 2019, as was his 9.5% swinging strike percentage. Wacha’s average fastball speed was at exactly 93 MPH after sitting at 93.6 MPH and 93.8 MPH, respectively, in 2020-21. His ground-ball rate was up a couple percentage points relative to his past couple years and he demonstrated the above-average control he’s owned throughout his career. Yet the most significant difference in 2022 was that opponents hit only .260 on balls in play after combining for a .324 BABIP between 2020-21.

Of course, there’s room for Wacha’s ERA to regress while still remaining palatable. Thanks largely to his plus strike-throwing, he’s posted a SIERA between 3.99 and 4.07 in each of the last three seasons. He’s a capable back-of-the-rotation starter, making him a reasonable fit for a win-now San Diego team that’s prepared to take some risk in their starting staff. Converted relievers Nick Martinez and Seth Lugo are respectively penciled into the fourth and fifth rotation spots behind Joe Musgrove, Yu Darvish and Blake Snell. The Friars are taking a leap of faith in both pitchers’ ability to hold up as starters — Martinez fared better as a reliever last year, and Lugo hasn’t topped 100 innings since 2018 — and adding a stable veteran like Wacha could alleviate some of the pressure on Martinez and Lugo.

It doesn’t appear San Diego is looking to displace either of that duo from the rotation. Manager Bob Melvin told reporters this afternoon the club had yet to decide whether to proceed with a five-man or six-man starting staff (link via AJ Cassavell of MLB.com). That could well depend on the team’s personnel, and bringing in Wacha would likely lead to the expanded rotation. Among internal options, Adrián Morejón, Reiss Knehr, Jay Groome and Pedro Avila are among those could battle for starts if the Friars want to lessen the load on their top five and/or incur any injuries.

The club’s openness to a six-man rotation could play into their interest in Hamels, although he certainly wouldn’t secure a guaranteed rotation job at the time of his signing. The four-time All-Star has had his last three seasons derailed by injuries. He’s started just one MLB game since the start of the 2020 season, missing the past two and a half years as various ailments (most notably recurring shoulder problems) have kept him out of action. He didn’t sign anywhere last year but is hoping for a comeback at age 39.

To that end, the longtime Phillie threw in front of scouts in late January. He’ll have to settle for a minor league contract after two lost seasons but seems likely to get a look from some club in Spring Training if healthy. Hamels is no stranger to the area, having grown up in San Diego and entering pro ball as a first-round pick out of Rancho Bernardo High School back in 2002.

Trio Of Free Agent Pitchers Work Out For Clubs

By Anthony Franco | January 27, 2023 at 9:10pm CDT

A handful of free agent hurlers threw for scouts this afternoon in Arlington, tweets Jon Heyman of the New York Post. Cole Hamels, Derek Holland and Kyle Crick each worked out for clubs in search of an opportunity.

Hamels, who turned 39 last month, is obviously the highest-profile of the bunch. One of the top pitchers in the game during his peak with the Phillies, Hamels is a four-time All-Star and former World Series MVP. He was an exemplar of durability throughout his peak, starting 30+ games each season from 2008-16. Hamels missed a bit of time with the 2017 Rangers and 2019 Cubs but still topped 140 innings in both years, with a 32-start showing sandwiched in between.

Unfortunately, the veteran southpaw has had virtually nothing go his way the past few seasons. Signed to a one-year deal by the Braves in 2020, Hamels was limited to just one appearance by shoulder issues. He lingered in free agency until August of the following season, when he caught on with the Dodgers on a $1MM contract. Hamels’ first comeback attempt was derailed within weeks by renewed shoulder discomfort, and he returned to the open market over the 2021-22 offseason.

The 15-year MLB veteran required surgery on his shoulder and didn’t sign for 2022. While initial reports last offseason suggested he could factor into the mix by the end of the summer, he eventually turned his attention to the upcoming season. Throughout the process, Hamels has maintained interest in a comeback, even as he told the Associated Press last month he’s also undergone operations on his right knee and left foot. It seems he’s now healthy enough to get back on a mound, where clubs will evaluate whether his current form warrants a minor league contract.

Holland also has over a decade of MLB experience. The 36-year-old has played for six different clubs over a 13-year big league career. He had some success as a starter early on with the Rangers and committed to a full-time bullpen role in 2019. The southpaw soaked up plenty of innings out of the ’pen for the Giants, Cubs, Pirates and Tigers from 2019-21 but allowed nearly six earned runs per nine altogether in that stretch. He spent last season in Triple-A in the Red Sox and Blue Jays organizations, combining for a 5.77 ERA with a 22.8% strikeout rate in 39 innings at the top minor league level. Released by Toronto around the All-Star Break, he didn’t pitch during the season’s second half.

Crick has the most recent big league experience of the group. The 30-year-old righty has pitched in the majors in each of the last six seasons, including 14 outings with the White Sox last year. His final outing came in mid-June, though, as he was placed on the injured list with inflammation in his throwing elbow. He hit minor league free agency at season’s end once Chicago ran through waivers. Crick had a couple excellent seasons to start his career with the Giants and Pirates in 2017-18; he owns a 4.47 ERA in exactly 100 big league outings since the beginning of the 2019 campaign.

Cole Hamels Planning Comeback In 2023

By Mark Polishuk | December 10, 2022 at 4:02pm CDT

Cole Hamels is looking for one more shot at continuing his baseball career, and told The Associated Press that he is hoping to catch on with a new team this offseason. “A Spring Training invite is no risk, all reward. If you start me out in February, I’ll be ready by April 1,” Hamels said. “Or I’ll know exactly I can’t do it, and I will be the first one to admit, nope, I had a great career. I can hang it up and be proud of what I did.”

The left-hander is a veteran of 15 Major League seasons (2006-20), and is best remembered as one of the key figures of the Phillies’ 2008 World Series team. Hamels was named the MVP of both the NLCS and World Series during that championship season, the highlight of an excellent 10-year run in Philadelphia. After being traded to the Rangers in 2015, Hamels spent parts of four seasons in Texas before heading to the Cubs in 2018-19, and then one single game with the Braves in 2020.

That lone game represents Hamels’ last appearance in the big leagues. Triceps and shoulder injuries limited his time in Atlanta, and after he inked a $1MM deal with the Dodgers in August 2021, his Los Angeles stint was also derailed by injuries. Continued shoulder problems resulted in surgery, and Hamels has now spent over a year both recovering and taking care of some other related health issues.

The shoulder procedure was only one of three surgeries for Hamels over the last year, as he also dealt with a pinched nerve in his left foot and a torn right meniscus. “It’s hard to train when you’ve got body parts that are not doing what they’re supposed to do to allow you to do what you want to do,” Hamels said, and the fuller scope of surgeries allowed for more “understanding what was kind of wrong, getting it fixed and then actually being able to rehab it, just kind of addressing the right areas and not trying to overcompensate.”

This cleaner bill of health could make any interested teams feel more comfortable about signing a pitcher who turns 39 later in December, and who essentially hasn’t pitched in three full seasons. However, as Hamels noted, there isn’t much risk in a minor league contract, and clubs can use spring camp as a better chance to evaluate what the southpaw can still bring to the table. While Hamels would ideally like to start games, his primary goal is just getting back onto the mound, as he said he is “not opposed” to working as a reliever.

Cole Hamels Targeting 2023 Comeback

By Anthony Franco | June 23, 2022 at 8:28pm CDT

Cole Hamels has made just one major league appearance since the end of the 2019 season, but the four-time All-Star continues to look for a return to the mound. Jon Heyman of the New York Post reports that the free agent southpaw is currently “feeling good” and targeting next spring for another comeback attempt.

The past few seasons have been trying for Hamels, who turns 39 years old in December. He tossed 141 2/3 innings of 3.81 ERA ball with the Cubs in 2019, earning an $18MM deal from the Braves in the process. That didn’t pan out, as Hamels was shut down during the July ramp-up for the shortened season due to a triceps issue. He returned in September, made one 3 1/3 inning start, then landed back on the IL with a shoulder injury that ended his year.

Hamels lingered on the free agent market through the first half of last season as he rehabbed from the shoulder issue. He resurfaced in mid-July with a showcase that led to a $1MM contract with the Dodgers a couple weeks later. Within two weeks, he’d been shut back down after experiencing renewed shoulder discomfort during a simulated game. Hamels didn’t make an official appearance as a member of the L.A. organization, and he hit free agency again at the end of the year.

Last November, MLB.com’s Jon Morosi reported that Hamels underwent surgery and was targeting a late-2022 return. That’s apparently no longer in the cards, as Heyman writes that the 15-year MLB veteran “has decided to take his time with his comeback plans.” That’d mark two straight seasons without any game action — and less than four innings in the past three years — but it seems Hamels remains determined to give things a go once he’s had enough time to build back from the shoulder procedure.

The long layoff certainly means Hamels will need to conduct another showcase and be amenable to minor league contracts to return to affiliated ball. Nevertheless, there’ll be no cost for organizations to check in on his form at some point next offseason. Hamels is one of the most accomplished pitchers of his generation, owner of a 3.43 ERA in just shy of 2700 big league innings. He has 11 sub-4.00 ERA seasons to his name and had been a paragon of durability during his prime. Hamels eclipsed 180 innings in every year between 2007-16 and worked 130+ frames for each of the first 14 seasons of his career.

Load More Posts

Show all

Headlines

Cole Hamels

Navigation

MLBTR INFO

Connect