Report: Nine Teams Clear of Hamels’ NTC

Buried yesterday among news and notes was a pair of tweets from Jon Morosi. Those tweets revealed the nine teams that Phillies’ lefty Cole Hamels could be traded to without his consent. This list includes locations near his childhood home like the Dodgers, Angels, and Padres, usual contenders like the Cardinals, Yankees, Red Sox, and Rangers, and two NL East rivals, the Nationals and Braves.

Analysis: The list comes at an interesting time. General Manager Ruben Amaro has said that no player is untouchable and has all but guaranteed that some sort of change is coming during interviews yesterday. It is been of long-standing belief that the Dodgers have had interest in Hamels in their rotation and it was believed that Hamels had interest in joining either the Angels or the Dodgers had he become a free agent based on the proximity to his childhood home. That being said, the news was likely in response to Morosi being tweeted about Hamels’ availability/NTC situation.

Interestingly enough, the list might as well be shaved down to seven teams. While Atlanta and Washington have a slew of prospects of varying degrees of Major League readiness and potential and would make perfect sense from that stand point, it is difficult to see the Phillies trading Hamels within the division.