Why Haven’t the Philadelphia Phillies Traded Cole Hamels?

As if the organization’s 2015 outlook didn’t already look bleak enough, the Philadelphia Phillies now need to address another elbow injury to Cliff Lee. Lee claims it’s the same feeling he had when he was plagued with an left-arm ailment in 2014 that cost him 100-plus innings. Now more than ever, the Philadelphia Phillies need to trade Cole Hamels.

Lee and Hamels have been two of the premier southpaw pitchers in baseball for the last half decade now. Phillies fans might think that they will especially need Hamels to win some games in 2015 given Lee’s situation. That might be true, but Hamels winning 10-15 games for them will only set them back even further in 2016, 2017 and so on.

Hamels is a great trade chip. He is a dominant left-handed pitcher with a proven track record and the stuff of an ace. By dealing him, Phillies GM Ruben Amaro Jr. could get a haul of players that could be part of the 25-man roster this season and also a few promising prospects for beyond. He has lost leverage in negotiations to reportedly having too high an asking price for Hamels.

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With 36-year old Lee’s season and possibly career in jeopardy, Amaro needs to begin the full-on rebuild and map out a productive five-year plan for the future. Entering only his age 31 season and under club control through potentially the 2019 season, Hollywood still should have a number of teams salivating to acquire him.

Clubs that come to mind without bonafide aces who are possible postseason contenders are the Boston Red Sox, Toronto Blue Jays and Los Angeles Angels. None of these three teams pose much, if any threat, to the Phillies by taking on Hamels. None play in the same division as Philadelphia, or even the National League for that matter.

The Red Sox and their surplus of young, talented outfielders is the most obvious situation here. Aside from missing out on Jon Lester in free agency, the Red Sox have been tied endlessly to Hamels trade rumors this offseason. The signing of IFA Yoan Moncada should make moving a package of players for Hamels even more feasible.

Clay Buchholz or Rick Porcello figures to be the Opening Day starter for Boston. The two have 14 years of combined MLB experience but only two All-Star game appearances between them, both to Buchholz’s credit. Hamels, meanwhile, is a three-time All-Star who has finished inside the top 10 of Cy Young voting four times in his career.

The Blue Jays look to have a potent offense once again in 2015. But pitching wins ball games and they look to be average in that department again. Mark Buehrle is the defacto ace and had one of his finer seasons at age 35 last year with a 13-10 record and a 3.39 ERA. Beyond that, rotation hopefuls Marcus Stroman, Daniel Norris and Drew Hutchison have only 380.2 combined MLB innings logged between them in their careers. It’s fair to say R.A. Dickey has been a bust for what the Jays gave up to acquire him, and young phenom Aaron Sanchez might end up pitching out of the bullpen in 2015.

As for last season’s AL West champions, Josh Hamilton‘s personal issues will affect the offense, but not the Los Angeles Angels’ pitching. Jered Weaver is no longer capable of ace-worthy outings on a regular basis. Though he had 22 quality starts in 2014, his ERA has gradually climbed from 2.41 in 2011 to last year’s 3.59. The 32-year old is still good, but he’s no longer dominant.

This became apparent as Garrett Richards outshone all of his Halos pitching counterparts in 2014 before suffering a bizarre season-ending knee injury in August. The knee surgery makes Richards somewhat of a question mark for 2015.

The Red Sox, Jays and Angels have a combined six prospects — excluding Moncada — ranked inside MLB.com’s top 50 names. Whether Cole Hamels gets dealt at all remains to be seen. Be it either to one of the three above teams or elsewhere (the Colorado Rockies need pitching in the worst way, but are more than one true ace away from being a contender), the Philadelphia Phillies and Amaro need to make a move.

Stockpiling some youthful depth within their organization and finding a trade partner who will give them good value for one of the best starting pitchers discontent with his current situation, yet in his prime, should be a front office priority before April arrives.

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