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.

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.

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.

More from around the NL…

• The Mets optioned infielder Danny Mendick to Triple-A today, according to Mike Puma of the New York Post. Mendick, who has experience at every position except for catcher and first base, suffered a torn ACL early last season, leading to his non-tender by the White Sox in November of last year. Mendick, who slashed a solid .289/.343/.443 in 106 plate appearances prior to his injury in 2022, eventually landed with the Mets on a one-year, $1MM contract. While he was in the mix for an Opening Day roster spot, he ultimately will serve as depth in Syracuse while the final spot on the bench goes to either Darin Ruf or Tim Locastro.
• The Padres believe that veteran left-hander Cole Hamels will be able to contribute to the big league club sometime this summer, according to Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union-Tribune. Hamels, 39, signed with the Padres on a minor league deal after years of battling injuries, with just 3 1/3 innings of work under his belt since the end of the 2019 season. Still, with a career 3.43 ERA in 2,698 innings of work during his fifteen year major league career, it’s easy to see why the Padres decided to take a chance on the possibility he could return healthy and effective.
• The Giants have hired longtime second baseman Joe Panik as a special assistant, according to Alex Pavlovic of NBC Sports. Panik, who won the World Series with the Giants in 2014, was an All Star in 2015, and won a Gold Glove award in 2016, last played in the majors in 2021 for the Blue Jays and the Marlins. He ended his career with a .700 OPS in 818 games, slashing .264/.328/.372. According to Pavlovic, Panik recently spent time working with some of San Francisco’s young infielders in minor league camp. Panik is happy in his new role, telling Pavlovic that “You kind of want to give back because there are a lot of coaches, a lot of people that helped me get to where I was. For me to be on the other side, it’s a little weird, a little different, but I’m enjoying that part of it.”

More from the division…

• Turning to the Rockies’ pitching staff, they’re facing a somewhat uncertain rotation picture to begin the season with righty Antonio Senzatela still rehabbing from last year’s torn ACL. Patrick Saunders of the Denver Post writes in his latest mailbag that the target for Senzatela’s return is still sometime in May — as was reported last month — but Saunders provides a less-optimistic outlook on southpaw Ryan Rolison, who had shoulder surgery last June. Rolison is still “weeks away” from pitching in a game setting, which likely takes him out of the running to make starts for the club early in the 2023 season. Righty Peter Lambert, however, is healthy and has already made one Cactus League appearance after a generally lost pair of seasons in 2021-22. Lambert underwent Tommy John surgery in 2020, pitched just 18 innings in 2021 after recovering, and was limited to only 8 2/3 innings in 2022 due to a forearm injury and renewed elbow troubles. If he’s healthy, the former No. 44 overall draft pick (2015) could factor into the Colorado rotation early, alongside German Marquez, Kyle Freeland, Jose Urena and (likely) Austin Gomber.
• New Giants outfielder Michael Conforto has been limited to DH work so far, but he expects him to be full-go by Opening Day, writes Jon Heyman of the New York Post. Conforto tells Heyman that his surgically repaired shoulder is back to full strength, but he’s still working to regain the accuracy on his throws from the outfield. More notably, perhaps, Heyman reports that the official diagnosis of the previously nebulous injury that prompted Conforto to undergo surgery and miss the 2022 campaign was a “capsule fracture” in his right shoulder. Conforto notably suffered a dislocation and capsule tear in his left shoulder back in 2017 as well. He returned from that injury and went on to hit .261/.365/.478 over a three-year span (2018-20) before stumbling to a .232/.344/.384 output in 2021, his last healthy season.
• Veteran lefty Cole Hamels, angling for an age-39 comeback with his hometown Padres, is slated to throw his third bullpen session of spring training today, per Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union-Tribune. The goal is for roughly 35 pitches. Hamels and the Padres are aiming for the lefty to be built up to around 45 pitches before he begins facing live hitters, so there’ll likely be one more ’pen session in the coming days before he takes that step. Meanwhile, veteran outfielder Adam Engel has been slowed by a calf strain and has yet to get into spring games. Engel, 31, figures to be San Diego’s fourth outfielder if he’s healthy enough to take the field come Opening Day. Manager Bob Melvin indicated last week that Engel wouldn’t play in the first week of spring games, but the team hasn’t provided a formal update on his status since.

“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.”

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

It’ll probably be another quiet offseason for Hamels, who lingered on the free agent market until early August this year after an injury-wrecked 2020 campaign with the Braves. The Dodgers eventually took a low-risk flier on the four-time All-Star. That didn’t pay off, as he suffered his latest injury while ramping up his throwing program and didn’t appear in a game with Los Angeles. Now facing another extended absence, it’s possible Hamels and his representatives at John Boggs & Associates don’t pursue another job until he’s further along in his rehab process next year.

Whenever Hamels is healthy enough to conduct a showcase, he should still attract interest from plenty of contending teams looking to bolster their pitching depth. After all, the southpaw was an effective hurler during his last healthy campaign. Over 141 2/3 innings with the 2019 Cubs, Hamels worked to a 3.81 ERA. He’d offered middle or top of the rotation production for essentially his entire career until these persistent woes cropped up, so it’s likely there’ll be plenty of teams willing to do their due diligence in evaluating his form after this latest rehab effort.

In the wake of that latest setback, it was fair to wonder whether Hamels would contemplate retirement. That won’t be the case, however, as Jon Heyman of the MLB Network (Twitter link) reports that the 37-year-old intends to make another comeback effort.

There’s no specific timetable for Hamels’ return from this latest injury. He’ll reach free agency at the end of the season and will presumably need to conduct at least one showcase for potential suitors whenever he’s healthy. His form in those looks could well determine whether Hamels will be able to land a big league deal again this time around.

The odds of Hamels returning to his All-Star peak form are very low, but it’s not inconceivable he could yet be a decent back-of-the-rotation option. Before these last couple years, Hamels was one of the game’s most durable arms. The southpaw rather remarkably made twenty or more starts and tallied 130+ innings in every season from 2006-19. And during his most recent healthy season, Hamels was still quite productive. With the Cubs in 2019, he worked to a 3.81 ERA over 141 2/3 frames. Given that Hamels has been an exemplar of consistency for the majority of his career and was still capable of performing well when last physically able to pitch, it’s not hard to understand his impulse to try and make another run in 2022.

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.

10:32am: The Dodgers have a deal in place with Hamels, tweets Mike DiGiovanna of the L.A. Times. He’ll first head to the team’s Spring Training complex in Arizona to continue building up arm strength.

9:00am: The Dodgers are nearing a deal with free-agent lefty Cole Hamels, reports MLB Network’s Jon Heyman (via Twitter). The 37-year-old Hamels recently held a widely attended showcase for clubs and will give the Dodgers another option in the rotation once he builds up to game readiness. Hamels is represented by JBA Sports.

Hamels’ 2020 season with the Braves was wiped out by a series of triceps and shoulder issues. Signed to a one-year, $18MM contract in December 2019, Hamels would only throw 3 1/3 innings during his time with Atlanta. A quiet offseason ensued, with Hamels waiting until his shoulder was back to 100 percent before auditioning for clubs. That might’ve taken longer than initially anticipated, but the lefty drew scouts from upwards of 20 teams last month once he felt ready to go.

It’s unlikely that Hamels will be an immediate option for the Dodgers. He’s pitched just 3 1/3 innings since the end of the 2019 season and hadn’t been throwing in game settings prior to his showcase. For some context, Phillies president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski discussed Hamels’ showcase with NBC Sports Philadelphia’s John Clark and laid out the reason that teams in need of immediate pitching help didn’t pounce on Hamels right away.

“The one thing in Cole’s case, and he’s the first to admit it, he’s not ready to pitch now,” said Dombrowski just a few days after Hamels’ showcase for teams. “He has to go through his own ’Spring Training,’ so you’re talking about somebody that’s maybe 30 to 40 days down the road helping you.”

Those comments came back on July 19, and Hamels has surely been working out in the interim — likely with more intensity as he geared up to sign with a team. Still, it stands to reason that the Dodgers would send him through at least a handful of minor league rehab starts, so Hamels seems like a late-August or early-September possibility more than someone who’ll be thrown right into the fire.

Whenever he does make his debut, Hamels will bring one of the more accomplished track records of the current generation of pitchers to the Dodgers’ staff. Hamels is a World Series champion and former World Series and NLCS MVP who has made four All-Star teams and has long been considered one of the game’s premier arms. His 2010-16 peak saw him pitch 1477 2/3 innings of 3.14 ERA ball. His work since that peak has dropped off a bit, but Hamels still tossed 480 1/3 innings of 3.92 ERA ball from 2017-19 before last year’s injury-ruined season.

Rotation help has become an unexpected need for the Dodgers, who lost Dustin May to Tommy John surgery early. Los Angeles also has both Clayton Kershaw (forearm inflammation) and Tony Gonsolin (shoulder inflammation) on the injured list at the moment. Trevor Bauer has been on administrative leave since early July following sexual assault allegations that were brought forth against him. Starter-turned-reliever David Price moved back into the rotation last month and built up to about 75 pitches, but his most recent outing was once again a single-inning relief appearance.

The Dodgers addressed their sudden lack of rotation depth at the trade deadline, first picking up the currently injured Danny Duffy before putting together a deadline-day blockbuster acquisition of Max Scherzer. That duo, plus the apparently impending addition of Hamels, ought to give the Dodgers some more firepower on the starting staff down the stretch in a tightly contested three-team race for the NL West crown. For now, the Dodgers will lean on Scherzer, Walker Buehler and Julio Urias as their top three options.

It’s not fully clear just when Hamels, Kershaw or Gonsolin could be cleared to pitch for the Dodgers. Hamels needs the aforementioned buildup, while the team’s last update on Kershaw was that he’d experienced some “residual soreness” following his latest throwing session. Gonsolin hit the 10-day IL on July 31, and there’s been no update since. Duffy landed on the injured list back on July 20, owing to a forearm strain. Royals GM Dayton Moore said on July 27 that the club felt Duffy was perhaps three to four weeks from a return.

The Dodgers themselves probably don’t know exactly how their rotation will shape up over the season’s final eight-plus weeks, but their recent pickups of Scherzer, Duffy and Hamels give the team an enviable stockpile of accomplished arms from which to draw as they look to chase down the first-place Giants and defend their 2020 World Series victory.

“We are contending,” Dombrowski told NBC Sports Philadelphia’s John Clark on his podcast this week. “…We’re not selling. We’re not in a position where we’re looking to move players off our team.”

Dombrowski declined to tip his hand as to specific areas he could upgrade, though he did note that the bullpen has again been inconsistent and that the team’s defense “is not our strength.” The first-year Phillies president of baseball ops also pushed back on the narrative that his team doesn’t have the prospects to make substantial upgrades. Dombrowski suggested that 2020 first-rounder Mick Abel isn’t likely to be moved but generally sounded open-minded about making moves to improve his club. Phillies fans, in particular, will want to give the entire interview a listen.

While Dombrowski would only vaguely indicate that the club can “get better in a couple areas,” Jayson Stark and Matt Gelb of The Athletic report that the team is targeting fourth and fifth starters to round out the rotation, as well as back-end relievers who can help shore up the team’s late-inning relief corps.

That meshes with Dombrowski’s assessment of the rotation in his interview with Clark. The former Expos, Marlins, Tigers and Red Sox baseball ops head lauded Zack Wheeler’s work and noted that when Wheeler, Aaron Nola and Zach Eflin are all pitching up to their capabilities, “you can beat anybody” in a short playoff series. Dombrowski also repeatedly praised lefty Ranger Suarez, who has recently emerged as a ninth-inning option and generally been effective since joining the club in early May. Suarez carries a 1.22 ERA, a 27.3 percent strikeout rate, and 8.4 percent walk rate and a 65.2 percent ground-ball rate in 37 innings.

One option of particular intrigue for Phillies fans could be former Philadelphia ace Cole Hamels. The free-agent lefty held a showcase for MLB teams last week, and Dombrowski confirmed to Clark that the Phillies attended the workout and threw the ball well. While candidly acknowledging interest in the lefty, however, Dombrowski also noted that he could be 30-plus days away from joining a big league rotation, as Hamels needs to go through the equivalent of a Spring Training buildup. That doesn’t provide the Phils or anyone else immediate help — and that’s something the Phillies could use with Eflin on the injured list at the moment.

With regard to specific trade targets, Dombrowski appears to still be casting a wide net and gauging asking prices throughout the league. Stark and Gelb write that the Phils have checked on “every closer who could be available” but aren’t limiting their search to current closers. The Phillies, like every other team, are cognizant of the fact that the next week could determine whether a few clubs operate as buyers or make some veterans available.

Dombrowski spoke about that tenuous balance with Clark, noting that it’d take something catastrophic (e.g. a 10-game losing streak) for the Phillies to sell. On the flip side, however, as a team looking to buy, that fine line being walked by so many other clubs could lead to players becoming available just before the deadline. “All of a sudden, [another team] loses three in a row, and somebody may be available that you weren’t anticipating to be available,” Dombrowski said to Clark.

There’s an argument that the Phillies (and other buyers) should simply act now rather than take the wait-and-see approach that is so prevalent throughout the game at the moment. But every front office is at the mercy of how much ownership will spend, and investing immediate resources only to find that a more desirable target is available a couple of days down the road is a risk when payroll isn’t unlimited.

Roster Resource’s Jason Martinez has the Phillies about $4.2MM from the $210MM luxury threshold. Stark, however, reports that the feeling among other clubs who’ve spoken with the Phillies about potential trades is that they’d be willing to cross that barrier for the first time in franchise history. That doesn’t mean Phils fans should assume there’s no limit to what Dombrowski can spend on outside acquisitions, but it’s a critical piece of context to consider as the deadline looms.

Looking around the league, there are plenty of fourth starter types available. Minnesota’s Michael Pineda, Colorado’s Jon Gray, Pittsburgh’s Tyler Anderson and Chicago’s Zach Davies are among the names available. There’s no need for the Phils to limit themselves to rental starters, either; Andrew McCutchen, Odubel Herrera, Archie Bradley, Chase Anderson, Matt Moore, Brad Miller, Vince Velasquez, Hector Neris, Brandon Kintzler and Matt Joyce are all coming off the roster at season’s end. The Phils still have $134MM committed to their 2022 books even with that large group of pending free agents, but this is a team that opened the 2021 season with a $197MM payroll and is now willing to add to it. Merrill Kelly, Matthew Boyd and Kyle Gibson are among the names available who could be moved even though they’re controlled through the 2022 season.