Red Sox Should Hold Off Trading For Cole Hamels

CSNNE: The Boston Red Sox have extended an offer to the Philadelphia Phillies for starting pitcher Cole Hamels, according to Nick Cafardo of The Boston Globe. That offer, however, is somewhat lackluster. The Sox are attempting to acquire the ace without sending any of their top prospects. Thus, the deal includes only major leaguers, and won’t appeal to the Phillies, who Cafardo said were “insistent” on receiving prospects.

Regardless of who the Red Sox may have offered in a deal that could land Phillies ace Cole Hamels before Opening Day, I still wouldn’t like the deal. I don’t like Hamels to the Red Sox because what the Phillies are asking for are way to high on a pitcher who frankly isn’t that impressive. Let me explain.

When they let Jon Lester go, they made a choice and that was not to bring back THE best left-handed pitcher in baseball because they did not want to pay him. Remember the Red Sox offered him a pretty lucrative contract offer, but the offer was no way near the Cubs final offer (6yrs/$155 million) which Lester eventually accepted. The Red Sox put a price on Lester and they stuck to their guns, now whether you agree or disagree with that is up for debate, and in case you forgot how I feel. Well you can read a few of my past articles, like this one and this one, and you’ll get an idea of how I feel towards Ben Cherington and how he handled that whole ordeal.

So now fast forward to right now, and the Red Sox have reportedly submitted a trade to Philadelphia for Hamels but are only offering major leaguers. Now you’d have to be a fool if you thought that the Phillies would be okay just trading for major leaguers, when they are clearly looking to blow that up and start from the ground up. Which is why I’m not that worried that Hamels will end up in Boston, not yet anyway.

But I still question why the Red Sox are actively looking to trade for Hamels when he is such an unknown if he came and pitched in Boston. Switching leagues, switching ballparks, adjusting to the Boston media market are just a few of the things that would be working against Hamels. Not to mention, just to get Hamels here would mean giving up guys who are already on your major league roster. I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it one more time. LETTING JON LESTER GO WAS A HUGE MISTAKE BY BEN CHERINGTON AND THE RED SOX. So unless Clay Buchholz and Rick Porcello put on a career year, I would be very worried about this rotation coming into Spring Training because they do not have that clear-cut number one ace that Jon Lester was.

However if they prove to legit contenders in the A.L East or Wild Card, then I would be open to revisiting the talks of Cole Hamels to Boston. A lot of things would have to go right for that to happen though. Hamels would have to be effective for the first half of the year. Boston has to be in playoff contention come July. The Red Sox can’t give up any legitimate prospects (See: Swihart, Blake). The Phillies would have to accept that. While that may be a long shot, I would much rather see Hamels in a Red Sox uniform in August, then right now. I’d rather see him perform early on in the season and get off to a good start before offering some of the players from the Red Sox farm system.

It’s a gamble either way, if Hamels proves to be a bust early on we can look back and say “Thank god the Sox didn’t get him” or it could be a situation where Hamels is lights out and the Phillies ask an arm and a leg for him. Either way, Ben Cherington has his hands full and unless the pitching staff goes out and proves to the Red Sox front office that they do not need an “ace”, then they will have some tough decisions in the coming months.