Rumor: Padres Have Explored Trade for Hamels

I apologize for this Hot Stove item in advance as it doesn’t seem there are a whole lot of legs to it right now. Or does it? If the reporter is good (he is), I’ll bite.

Ryan Lawrence of Philly.com is reporting that the San Diego Padres have had discussions about trading for Cole Hamels “according to a baseball source” with newly acquired outfielder Wil Myers as the centerpiece of the deal. What is unclear is whether the discussions were internal or included the Phillies and what members of the Padres’ organization had them. Lawrence notes that the Padres are a team that Hamels can be traded to without his consent and that one week ago, Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe reported that the Padres were one of the teams interested in acquiring Hamels.

The pieces do fit together to make a trade work, on the surface. The Padres, who have swung deals for a starting catcher, third basemen, and have at least six Major League starting outfielders after acquiring Matt Kemp, Myers, and Justin Upton within last week. Myers fits the bill with what the Phillies are looking for: he is under team control through 2019 and was the AL Rookie of the Year in 2013 but is recovering from a wrist injury. And despite swinging so many trades in the last seven to ten days, the Padres still have a number of prospects available to compliment a deal for Hamels. Hamels has become more appealing in recent days in large part due to the rising price tags of Max Scherzer

and James Shields, the latter who requested a five year deal in the $110 million range, not coincidentally the identical amount Hamels has remaining on his contract if his options vest.

We will continue to keep an eye on this one.