Cole Hamels Signs 6-Year, $144 Million Contract Extension With Phillies

So, yeah, you’re going to read a lot about the money the Phillies have committed to their future payroll. You’ve probably read a few articles already. But it’s not because of unoriginality. It’s because it’s a lot of freaking money. It’s like how you’ll never read a retrospective of Thriller that doesn’t include something about how well the album sold. Sure, you probably know it was the greatest selling album ever, but here’s that number again: 110 million albums. One hundred and ten million albums. It’s worth repeating again and again. It’s just that amazing.

The Phillies will have over $132 million committed to eight players next year. That leaves them needing 17 players for $46 million if they don’t want to go over the luxury tax. A good breakdown (pre-Hamels) can be found here.

From 2008 through today, here are the five best National League pitchers, measured by Wins Above Replacement:

In the press conference, Hamels said a great deal about how much he loves the game, and the fans in Philadelphia; it was those fans, more than anything else, that made him want to stay with the Phillies.*

It might not help the Phillies this season — they still stand far out of contention despite winning seven of their last 10 — but this contract shows their commitment to winning again in the near future.

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Hamels is 11-4 with a 3.23 ERA and 131 strikeouts in 19 starts this season.

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Hamels has publicly expressed his fondness for playing in Philadelphia and his willingness to sign a long-term deal with the Phillies. He has even said he’s open to returning to the Phillies as a free agent this offseason if the team trades him before the deadline.

But people close to Hamels said he was resigned to testing free agency until the Phillies put on a strong rush to re-sign him earlier this month, and part of him is intrigued by the thought of going on the open market and seeing what opportunities might await. Hamels conceded that was the case during a recent interview with Comcast SportsNet in Philadelphia.Crasnick quoted a source as saying the negotiations between Hamels and the team are entering a “sensitive” stage. That could mean one of a number of things, and so the bottom line is: we wait.

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This is by no means a done deal. Rosenthal points out that Hamels could reject the offer and head to free agency. If that happens, the Phillies could still deal Hamels before the non-waiver trade deadline 11 days from now.

The Phillies are struggling this season due to injuries, so keeping Hamels isn’t likely to put them on any postseason run. But signing him to a long-term extension sends a message that the Phillies intend to quickly reload so they can contend in 2013 and beyond.

The Phillies have a lot of money tied up in the long term to win in the short term, and apparently they’ve come to the conclusion that a short term without Cole Hamels isn’t something worth considering.

“They want to sign him, and that’s their priority,” said an official of one club that spoke with the Phillies’ brass this week. “They’re really not even entertaining (trade) offers at this point.”

Plenty of teams want things they never get. The Rangers might reach August without having added a starting pitcher of considerable value, if they add a starter at all. But don’t think the Rangers won’t sniff around the most expensive cheeses. They are a people of wealth, and of exceptional taste.

The Phillies are sending signals that they are planning to make an initial offer to star lefthanded pitcher Cole Hamels for about $130 million over six years within the next few days, sources familiar with the team’s thinking told CBSSports.com.

Cain is a great pitcher. So is Hamels. But the Phillies have struggled this year, and with them growing old, they might not be as good as the Giants in the near term, which is what Hamels might be thinking.

Which doesn’t mean they won’t trade him. Or that they will. It’s all so confusing.

The Phillies seem to have luxury-tax issues, but if they don’t get Hamels re-upped they’ll have pitching issues.

Despite an already high payroll, which includes multiple $100 million contracts, the Phillies are apparently confident they will reach a deal with Hamels.

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However, if the front-office types and/or owners are convinced they can’t re-sign Hamels, or if someone who matters is pushing the “we gotta get something, can’t let him go for nothing, gotta get something, gotta get anything for him” mindset on July 31, well, that changes things. I doubt that’ll be the case. Doubt that’s what anyone is thinking in Citizen’s Bank Park. But I don’t trust Ruben Amaro to be normal, and you can’t predict when owners are going to get meddling or jittery.

If Hamels has to go, it’s time to start thinking about the risk/reward involved with trading Cliff Lee. Does the 4.13 ERA and 0-5 record mean that something’s wrong? Nah. The stats that matter suggest that Lee is just unlucky. Other teams know that. And considering that he’s locked up for the next three years, he still has a good amount of trade value. Trading him in combination with Hamels and whoever else isn’t nailed down would get that prospect haul that they’re asking for right now.

The reported answer? Sort of!

Jon Heyman:

But, hey, talk is cheap. Until it’s really, really expensive. And that talk turned expensive when the Dodgers signed Cuban prospect Yasiel Puig to a major-league contract worth $42 million. The reaction can be summed up best by a simple headline to the Baseball America story on the signing:

Dodgers Sign Yasiel Puig To Puzzling DealAnd some golden quotes:

And there are now two new wrinkles in the Hamels saga. The first:

I don’t know why Dr. Benjamin picked that picture as the warning, but whatever. Not here to judge. Point is that only a few teams will be crazy and desperate enough to give out a seven-year deal.

An agreement could still be reached, obviously. Maybe Hamels would settle for six years and an option. Maybe the Phillies are willing to go to seven. Maybe anything. Hamels is 28 years old and his numbers so far this season are outstanding. One way or another, Cole Hamels is going to get paid. And as always, it’s difficult to imagine him getting paid by someone other than the Phillies.

The best part about repeating yourself is the whole “not having to type anything new” part. But this is freaky enough to repeat:

It’s hard to find three pitchers quite that similar. These three were to be free agents after the season. They were holding hands and staring into the abyss, like Thelma & Louise & … that one no one talks about anymore. Janelle, or something. The first one to sign the deal was going to bring the other two along with him, for better or for worse.

Recently, it was reported that the Phillies know how much Hamels will cost per year, and that they can afford it. The issue is the number of years, with Hamels wanting more than the Phillies are willing to give. If that’s true, it seems like there could be a compromise, maybe/probably with vesting options and the like, and we aren’t exactly accustomed to the Phillies losing impact players, but as long as progress isn’t being made, other suitors can lick their lips. That’s gross, I’m sorry for writing that. Cole Hamels might become a free agent. Okay.

There might be three premium starters on the free-agent market this offseason. Where the best of this year’s crop included a pitcher who has only been a starter for two seasons and a pitcher who has never thrown in the majors, next year’s crop could feature three known quantities. And it’s a little spooky how close they are to each other. Their stats from 2008 to present:

Cain has the edge in every category, but just barely, and he also has the lowest strikeout-to-walk ratio of the three. It’s a pretty evenly matched troika. They’re all free agents after this season, and they’ve all expressed a willingness to stay with their current organization. They like where they’re at. That’s worth something, in which “something” is defined as an intangible value that probably doesn’t relate to money.

Nobody’s setting a deadline for an agreement. But during the season, of course, Hamels doesn’t want to be distracted. Buster Olney reported that there was no movement in talks on Tuesday, which isn’t a huge shock. I think, in the end, this is going to be pretty simple.

It’s hard to see Cole Hamels leaving the Phillies for another team. Hamels is established in Philadelphia, and the Phillies generally don’t let players get away. But if the Phillies don’t want to go as long as Hamels wants to go, and if the Dodgers enter the market next fall flush with money...

Instead, it looks like it could be an either/or situation. It was going to be either Lee or Hamels. Howard or Hamels. Uh, Papelbon or Hamels. There wasn’t an unlimited budget at any point. And Amaro defends his decisions to Rosenthal:

”(Ryan Howard) was probably the most productive player during that span of anybody, including Pujols. This is not a slight against Cole — he has had some phenomenal years. But he is not the most decorated player in baseball.“That’s why Amaro locked Howard up two years before he was a free agent, signing him to a five-year deal that didn’t even kick in until a few months after Howard tore his ankle up making the last out of the Phillies’ season. And he’s right to say that Howard was more productive than Pujols if he’s ranking players alphabetically by last name.