Phillies

Yes or No On a Cole Hamels Reunion?

By Kevin Kinkead

Published: Jul 3rd, 2018 · 3:23 PM EDT

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You’ve probably seen Cole’s name floating around out there as a possible trade piece for the 38-47 Rangers.

Jon Heyman dropped this bit today:

Hearing some chatter about a Cole Hamels possible reunion with phillies. It’s early, and unsure how serious the chatter is. But they love him. He loved it there (obvs) and has a home there so presumably he’d approve. Has control with no-trade list covering two-thirds the teams)

— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) July 3, 2018

My gut says no, simply because it brings me back to a time when Ruben Amaro Jr. and the Phillies simply couldn’t move on from the aging stars that brought this city the 2008 World Series. I feel like we’ve advanced well beyond the point of sentimentality, and it’s not like starting pitching is the Phils’ biggest need at this point anyway.

Hamels is a club legend, 34 years old now with a base salary of $22.5 million. Cole is 4-7 with a 4.05 ERA in 17 starts with the Rangers this year and he has a 2019 club option for 20 million dollars. There also exists a no-trade clause that keeps him from being moved to a ton of other teams, as Heyman points out. Texas is last place in the AL West and would want to move Hamels by the July 31st deadline, so the Phils would likely not have to give up much to bring him back, but I don’t know that giving up anything for an aging lefty – even if it’s Hamels – is worth it.

What say you? Yes or no?